July went by in the blink of an eye, partly because we were so busy here at Maine Audubon. I wanted to give you all a small sampling of some of the many things that take place at Maine Audubon, so I asked colleagues to send me a snapshot of one fun thing they did to advance our mission this past month.
Summer’s fun because we have a lot of teams out in the field, on lakes, in forests, at the beaches, playing games with campers, and taking teens on adventures. I hope you will take a minute and scroll through these highlights which take you from the wilderness of Borestone Mountain to the beaches of southern Maine. We’re out in the wild, but we’re also in urban areas, too. Make sure you check out the photos from Jane Affleck Fitz’s summer working with teens from Lewiston, and our work with Maine Association of New Americans, planting trees with teens in Portland schoolyards.
Camp staff in action! Walter Commins (top photo) is explaining a honeybee nectar collecting teamwork game, and Emma Ottenheimer (bottom photo) is pointing at a bee swarm that we serendipitously spotted one morning during camp.
—Molly Woodring, Camp Director and Associate Education Director
Ethan Daly and I deployed a late season loon nesting platform on Songo Pond just last week. This platform will provide the loons of Songo Pond with an ideal nesting microhabitat for years to come!
—Oskar Mattes,Loon Restoration Project technician
For the second year in a row, we set up collection tents called Malaise Traps at the Gilsland Farm, Fields Pond, and Hamilton sanctuaries to collect flying insects, which will be weighed and identified along with other samples from all across North America as part of the North American Insect Abundance Network.
—Conservation Biologist Sarah Haggerty
During the 2024 summer, Maine Audubon partnered with Maine Association for New Americans to recruit 10 teens to help us learn about and plant species from the K-5 Wabanaki Studies curriculum at Portland elementary schools. In this photo, teens worked with Maine Audubon Urban Forestry Education Specialist Jeff Tarling to ready the soil and plant several species of native plants at the East End Community School in Portland. These new plantings will enable teachers and students to visit these plants as they grow and bloom during the school year while they study their importance to Wabanaki culture, relationships with wildlife, their indications for climate change, and other ecological benefits they provide.
—Eric Topper, Education Director 
This July, we held our annual Plover Party at Crescent Beach. It was a wonderful opportunity to come together as a community and celebrate our efforts in endangered shorebird conservation now that the season is slowing down. Appreciating volunteers, community members, and our supporters and teammates at Maine Audubon!
—Sophie Garland-Dore, Seasonal Coastal Birds Technician
I wore the new and improved plover costume and walked along the beach with the Outreach Coordinator Christie Hull to interact with beach goers and spread the word about the events Maine Audubon was hosting that day!
—Erin Campbell, Coastal Birds Biologist
Checking in on loon nesting rafts and hatched chicks!
—Tracy Hart, Wildlife Ecologist
This summer, Maine Audubon is running its third year of Sprout Lewiston, a teen stewardship program run in collaboration with Maine Community Integration (MCI) in Lewiston. MCI’s mission is to empower New Mainer girls and women to make a positive impact in their community. Over the course of four weeks, 12 teen participants learn about local ecology and professional pathways in conservation, as well as partner with Lewiston Public Works to enhance green spaces in their city.
—Jane Affleck Fitz, Community-Based Education Programs Manager
Led a Forestry for Maine Birds walk and talk at Robinson Woods Preserve in Cape Elizabeth, for staff and volunteers from land trusts in Cape Elizabeth, Scarborough, and South Portland and Friends of Fort Williams Park. The group photo shows a few people in the group, practicing doing a habitat assessment.
—Sally Stockwell, Conservation Director
Oskar Mattes and I stopped to see the first-in-Maine Anhinga en route to a Lake Association presentation.
—Ethan Daly, Loon Restoration Project technician
Some of our most important behind-the-scenes work isn’t especially photogenic, so those of us who work mainly behind a computer or attend lots of strategic planning meetings aren’t pictured here. But none of this photogenic work would happen without these people—they keep the bills paid, communicate with members and supporters, register campers and make sure all the forms are filled out, write testimonies and lobby policy makers, submit grant applications, stock and run the nature stores, update the website, design publications and signage . . . you get the picture!
Designing signage for a nature trail story walk at Scarborough Marsh
—Brandi Sladek, Design Manager
We’re working hard to conserve Maine wildlife and wildlife habitat, to engage people in this aim, and to expand the community of people who care about wildlife here and everywhere. Thanks for supporting the work we do!
