NERRS Celebrates Earth Day
Last week Earth Day celebrators welcomed local signs of spring like this forsythia from our Great Bay Reserve in New Hampshire.
Reserves around the country celebrated Earth Day by creating opportunities for people to appreciate the wonder of estuaries and help protect them.
Maine’s Wells Reserve brought neighbors, farmers, and scientists together with non-profits and businesses for bird walks, beach clean ups, and dialogues about Rachel Carson and current research. They also celebrated their new Webhannet Marsh Trail at nearby Harbor Park. The Reserve’s first ADA-compliant trail allows people with disabilities to approach the edge of a salt marsh and experience its unique sights, sounds, and smells.
A very sustainable ribbon cutting offically opened the Wells Reserve’s new trail. From left: Wells Town Manager Jonathan Carter, Wells Reserve Executive Director Paul Dest, Wells Selectman and Reserve Management Authority Board Member Karl Ekstedt, NERRS Program Manager Erica Seiden, and Laudholm Trust President and Reserve Management Authority Chair Nik Charov. Photo courtesy of Scott Richardson, communications director of the Wells Reserve.
Wisconsin’s Lake Superior Reserve “slammed it” with water-focused storytelling, while New Hampshire’s Great Bay “got wild” with Discover Wild New Hampshire Day, an event that connected kids to critters like the beloved (when at arm’s length) horseshoe crab.
Knowing that every day is Earth Day, New Jersey’s Jacques Cousteau Reserve installed some permanent reminders in the form of folk art from local blacksmiths.
Who said horseshoe crabs weren’t cuddly? Photo courtesy of the Great Bay Reserve.
Mission-Aransas (TX), Wells, Jacques Cousteau (NJ), Waquoit Bay (MA), and Kachemak Bay (AK) Reserves gave it up for the birds and other estuary critters by setting up sound recording instruments for 24 hours over Earth Day. The goal? Compare the sounds of biodiversity (including bird calls) and human impacts.
All week NERRA celebrated NERRS education programs, which helped more than 86,000 students take learning out of the abstract and into the outdoors in 2018. Education equals “change on the ground” for many Reserve communities—check out the impressive stats and stories from 2018.
