The Wrack

A load of snow, powerful winds, storm surge, and frigid air kick off 2018.

Laudholm Trust sends emergency relief funds to the Mission-Aransas Reserve in Texas and Jobos Bay Reserve in Puerto Rico to support recovery and rebuilding efforts after devastating hurricanes.

This year's Laudholm Nature Crafts Festival was the kind of community we should all want to live in. More than 160 volunteers worked together as a tireless, friendly, and welcoming team to make 3,500 visitors and 122 participating artisans feel like there was no better place to be.

The following was published in the Biddeford-Saco Journal Tribune Sunday edition, 3/20/2016, and Making It At Home's 3/23/2016 issue.

My wife and I and our two boys moved up to Maine full-time in July 2012. We felt like we’d arrived in the Garden of Eden. Lobsters were four bucks, the ocean was 73 degrees, and the outdoor season stretched well into November. It wasn’t the Maine I knew from my childhood (swimmable water!?), but who cared? It was awesome.

The following was published in the Biddeford-Saco Journal Tribune Sunday edition of 1/24/16 and Making It At Home Thursday edition, 1/28/2016.

Always eager to start some new long-term monitoring project, I’m now keeping track of the number of conversations I have about the weather. I’m planning to henceforth keep tabs on with whom, when, and for how long we chatted. I’m already certain one thing will be constant: the changing weather will be discussed in only the most general, equivocal, unchanging terms. You and I will talk about the weather, my friends, but we will say nothing new.

It's been well over a week since our few inches of snow fell and we've been through a a number of melt/freeze cycles over that time. Skis and snowshoes won't be much fun; wear sturdy boots and take your time on the uneven and sometimes icy surface.

Weather is not looking great. Your best bet this weekend is probably Saturday afternoon. Be careful early Saturday, as the roads might be slick. The skies brighten for the start of the work week.

We have no public programs this weekend, and the Visitor Center is closed until April, but next Wednesday at lunch time Sue Bickford will talk about Soundscape Ecology in Mather Auditorium.

The following was published in the Biddeford-Saco Journal Tribune Sunday edition, 2/22/2015.

I learned a new word this year. Subnivean, from the Latin for “under” (sub) and “snow” (nives). It’s the zone within and underneath the snowpack. It’s where we’ve all been living lately.

Figure 1: A chart of the scientific consensus on climate change (97% of scientists agree that humans are driving global warming), and how much attention the minority opinion seems to receive in the media. Or is it a graph of the amount of America's wealth controlled by the top 3% (54.5%), vs. the bottom 97%?

The following was published in the Biddeford-Saco Journal Tribune Sunday edition, 10/5/2014.

Two weeks ago, my family and I were perched on the steps of the grand fountain in Columbus Circle, Manhattan, watching 300,000 people march past. They sang, they shouted, and they carried thousands of messages, all communicating one thing: world leaders, it’s time to do something about climate change. A week of action followed. Further protests spread around the world, corporations declared carbon reduction goals, and even presidents and prime ministers frankly spoke of “addressing the need to revise a framework for negotiation.”

That’s some progress, anyway.

Goal

Develop a disaster response plan for the Wells Reserve and surrounding watersheds that complements and coordinates with local and county efforts and that will serve as a model for other natural resource organizations and agencies.

Why Do This Project?

The Julie N oil spill in Portland Harbor (1996), Mother's Day storm (2006), and Patriot's Day storm (2007) caused extensive environmental and infrastructure damage to the coastal areas of southwest Maine. More recently this region was narrowly spared the great devastation caused by Hurricanes Irene (2011) and Sandy (2012). These events have reinforced that:

• the occurrence of natural and man-made disasters is unpredictable
• a lack of preparation can result in a slower and less efficient response
• resilience of natural resources and man-made infrastructure to disasters can be "built in" in advance to some degree

The following was published in the Biddeford-Saco Journal Tribune and Making It At Home Sunday editions, 2/2/2014.

I will not be the first person to admit that it’s gotten harder to watch football this season. I still love the drama, the personalities, and the heroics of any given NFL Sunday. But some guilt has crept into the game I grew up watching every week with my father. I’m not seeing it the same way I used to.