Sharing good news from across the organization about recent grants awarded, fun news items, partner news, and more!
Enhancing the Nature Trail at Scarborough Marsh
Thanks to a grant funded by the Scarborough Rotary and the Prouts Neck Association, Maine Audubon will be able to enhance the Scarborough Marsh Audubon Center Nature Trail to introduce visitors and students to marsh ecology and its importance through a series of interpretive signs posted along the trail. With this addition, casual visitors will be able to glean information about the marsh as they walk the trail. The 3,100-acre Scarborough Marsh—Maine’s largest salt marsh—is a classroom for school children, a laboratory for biologists, prime territory for fishermen and hunters, and a fascinating, ever-changing world for naturalists, especially birders.
Conserving Saltmarsh and Nelson’s Sparrows
Efforts to restore and maintain salt marshes and to upgrade aging coastal infrastructure are rapidly increasing as our wetlands, roads, culverts and bridges are showing the impacts of sea level rise.The needs of rare wildlife species are not necessarily being taken into consideration when planning projects which impact our salt marshes, despite the fact that the Saltmarsh Sparrow is IUCN Red Listed as being threatened with extinction, with some projections stating the birds could be extinct within the next 30 to 50 years. Thanks to a grant award from the Blake-Nuttall Fund, Maine Audubon will work with partners in marsh restoration, tidal road crossings, and avian monitoring to develop a set of recommendations that will integrate conservation of Saltmarsh and Nelson’s Sparrows into the various marsh restoration scenarios and activities that are underway and on the horizon.
Pumping up Pets 4 Plovers
Thanks to funding from USFWS, we will reinvigorate our #pets4plovers campaign. Check back in late winter/early spring on the Maine Audubon website and social media accounts as we amplify efforts to educate people on how to help keep both pets and plovers safe!
Reducing Shorebird Disturbance
Maine Audubon will be partnering with Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge to educate about migrating shorebirds. We will expand our existing volunteer programs dedicated to nesting birds to the shorebirds stopping by our waterways to forage and rest. These birds are making epic migratory journeys from the tundra breeding grounds to central and South America—their stopovers are essential for fueling up as they travel thousands of miles.
Planting Native Plants with the Girl Scouts
Youth Programs Manager Catherine Griset lent a helping hand to Maine Girl Scout Molly Gerding, a middle school student in Falmouth, who recently completed a Silver Award project to create a new Girl Scouts of Maine patch and guide on native plants. The guide she created takes scouts through five steps (explore native plants, hear from an expert, identify natives and non-natives, plant natives, and share what you learned) as well as lots of great references. You can see the patch and patch guide on the Girl Scouts of Maine website.
Keeping Birds in Mind at the Mahoosuc Land Trust
The Mahoosuc Land Trust in Bethel has embraced the principles of our Forestry for Maine Birds program and has ordered all of the informational signs that we make available to land trusts, municipal community forests, or Soil and Water Conservation District forests that are open to the public and being managed “with birds in mind.” Each sign, which is placed near an example of that habitat feature, includes a description of the feature, photos of birds that use that feature, and questions for the reader to consider, as well as recommendations for how to enhance habitat for birds and other wildlife in your own woodland.
Binoculars for Fields Pond thanks to the Acadia Birding Festival
This good news from the Acadia Birding Festival:
“Each year the Acadia Birding Festival gives back to the community by selecting a few local organizations to receive the ABF Environmental Stewardship Award. This award goes to an organization that proves to be good stewards and educators of the environment. It is ABF’s way of showing our appreciation for organizations like Fields Pond Audubon Center that provide numerous opportunities to educate adults and children about our ecosystems and the importance of protecting the environment around us. We applaud your efforts! We are pleased to provide Fields Pond with 10 pairs of binoculars for groups to use on bird and nature walks. We hope this gift will help bring nature into closer focus for your participants!”
