Visiting with Ecologist Bernd Heinrich

Post by Chloe Tremper, Science Educator

View fullsize

Enjoying the views on Hurricane

This past weekend, we had the honor of hosting Bernd Heinrich and his partner Lynn Jennings on island.  Bernd is a well-known naturalist, ultrarunner, and author of over 20 books including Mind of the Raven, Winter World, and Why We Run.  He has been a runner for most of his life but got into ultra running after he turned 40.  He won his first 100k in 1981 with a time of 6:38:21, which was an American record at the time.  He has also held American track records for the 100k, 100 miles, and 24 hour races and holds American ultra records in three age divisions.  Bernd is a professor emeritus at UVM and still teaches a winter ecology course at his cabin in western Maine for a week each January, which is how we got him here on Hurricane.  Chloe, one of our science educators, TAed his winter ecology course and invited him & Lynn to visit. 

We were incredibly lucky to have Lynn out on island as well. Lynn is one of the most accomplished women’s long distance runners in American history.  She is an Olympic medalist (bronze in the 10k at the 1992 games in Barcelona), has won more U.S. women’s cross-country titles than anyone in history, and holds the world record for the indoor 5,000m.  While Lynn is retired from running professionally, she still runs daily and works as the Running Program Director and Coach for the Craftsbury Outdoor Center in Vermont.  

View fullsize

Climbing the spruce trees

As you can imagine, our staff had a blast spending time with these two amazing and humble people. Their two days on Hurricane were chock full of running, exploring, lobstering, nest hunting, writing, tree climbing, cookouts and more.  Lynn even held an informal running workshop for a few of our staff to improve their running form!

On Saturday evening, we all headed over to Vinalhaven where the Hurricane Island Foundation and the Vinalhaven Land Trust co-hosted a talk by Bernd.  Over 90 people showed up to hear Bernd speak about his American chestnut trees. 

View fullsize

Bernd speaks to a packed room in Vinalhaven

American chestnut trees used to dominate the forests of eastern North America up until the early 1900s. This was until chestnut blight arrived in North America – catching a ride on imported Asian chestnut trees arriving to plant nurseries around the U.S.  Within 50 years of its arrival, chestnut blight wiped out almost 4 billion chestnut trees across the east coast.  While a few American chestnut trees survive, most remain small and succumb to blight before they can flower and reproduce.

In the early 1980s, Bernd obtained and planted some American chestnut seeds on his property.  After ten or fifteen years passed, he noticed that his trees were beginning to flower and fruit – this caught him off guard as he had never expected his trees to successfully reproduce since most chestnuts planted today don’t.  The first few years of flowering and fruiting, he was uncertain that the trees were being pollinated because many of the fruits he was finding on the ground did not actually contain nuts.  He came to find out later that this was because chestnuts drop their dud fruits early and keep the successful ones on their branches until later in the season. 

Bernd then began to notice chestnut saplings popping up all over his forests.  Chestnuts have large, heavy nuts that are not very easily dispersed so he thought it curious to be finding seedlings showing up hundreds of yards from the mature chestnuts near his cabin.  After a season of watching wildlife visit his trees, he determined blue jays and red squirrels to be the main dispersers – watching jays fly away with mouths full of nuts and squirrels run off with one nut at a time to stockpile away.

Bernd’s American chestnuts are still thriving and some of the saplings in the forest are beginning to grow fairly large. Hopefully chestnut blight will not find its way to any of Bernd’s trees.  Want to plant some chestnut trees of your own? Check out the American Chestnut Foundation.

We are so grateful to Bernd and Lynn for coming out to Hurricane and sharing such a special weekend with us. We hope they will be back in the future with chestnut seeds!

On the Right Trail

Post by Chloe Tremper, Science Educator

View fullsize

Have you ever gotten lost on Hurricane’s trails? We hope not, but now it will be even harder to do so as we have recently redone our entire trail system! Don’t worry, the same old trails are still there – they’re just cleaned up and clearly marked with different color blazes.  This project has been a long time coming and was initiated earlier this summer by Olivia, one of our science education interns.  Olivia has worked on many trail crews in the past and upon her arrival noticed that Hurricane’s trail system could use a little sprucing up.

Olivia and I started this venture together by purchasing the paint and other supplies needed and began with the coastal trail since it is one of Hurricane’s most popular trails.  The coastal trail is now marked with green blazes and a few cairns where there weren’t many trees. 

View fullsize

Sadly, life on Hurricane got busy and by the time we were ready to carry on with trail marking Olivia had to head back to Vermont to finish up her senior year at UVM. Since her departure though, I have successfully marked all of our trails with a few helping hands of course – and sometimes without! Slocum’s trail is now marked with blue blazes, the high cliffs loop trail is blazed with red, the trail to sunset rock is a nice pastel orange, and the trail from the lab to the ice pond through the woods is yellow.  If you find yourself on a trail that has two blazes (one of the above colors and white) on the same tree- you’ve ended up on a connector trail!

In addition to trail blazes, you’ll also find some handy trail signs posted to point out trailheads off of the main roads.  All of these signs were either wood burned using magnifying glasses or painted by us.  On top of that, we have roped off areas that are either closed trails or not trails at all – we are hoping to start trail regeneration monitoring soon so please respect the rope!

Hurricane’s trails are ready for you so come visit us & go for a hike! Download our newest trail map here!

Scientists converge on Hurricane for Field Station Network meeting

View fullsize

The Gulf of Maine is a vast expanse covering over 36,000 square miles and bordered by more than 7,500 miles of coastline from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia.  That coastline is home to a variety of scientific institutions, including many small field stations that individually operate with limited faculty, staff, and equipment.  Even though these stations are “small,” don’t underestimate their importance! Each station conducts their own research on a range of unique subjects within the Gulf of Maine, thereby contributing to our global understanding of the world we live in.  Their shared general purpose and location have brought these field stations together under the sentiment that ‘together we can achieve more’ and they converged on Hurricane Island this week to initiate a diverse partnership.

View fullsize

The partnership specifically aims to coordinate the efforts of these small field stations in order to implement shared research and training goals. The funding necessary to start this work was secured by Hurricane Island’s own Cait Cleaver (Director of Science and Research) and Laura Sewall from the Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area who together received a $25,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Field Station and Marine Laboratory program.  Senators Susan Collins and Angus King recognized the award in a joint press release where they emphasized the critical importance of the partnership.  According to the joint statement, “this investment will support critical research efforts underway throughout the Gulf of Maine that will help us understand and better protect our environment and the livelihoods of our fishermen.”

View fullsize

The Hurricane Island meeting is just the first step in a 10-year plan to coordinate efforts among these field stations.  This initial phase includes two multi-day meetings this fall for all station directors, scientists associated with the field stations, and scientific advisors.  In this first meeting it was amazing to see the sheer number of different research efforts being conducted by the participants! Facilitator Craig Freshley orchestrated the meeting as scientists from each field station created cards listing their current research endeavors and then organized them on one of our walls.  This visual representation clearly helped identify the research gaps that existed across the field stations and helped focus the team as they decided on joint research priorities.  Another major outcome from this first effort was the formation of working groups that will be tackling particular issues in preparation for the next meeting in November at the Bates’ field station.  Groups were formed to address questions that arose surrounding data sharing and management, equipment, protocols, public outreach and education, and collaborative training and long-term capacity building.  These committees have their work cut out for them over the next two months and will deliver their findings to the whole group in advance of the next meeting.

View fullsize

And all that is just the beginning! After the next meeting, the lead field stations will continue their efforts and develop a 10-year strategic plan that will allow the small field stations to coordinate their work and fully leverage their capacity as a network.  The passion and dedication of the individuals present on Hurricane Island this past week was palpable and it is clear that their work is incredibly important and timely.  Senators Collins and King recognized that “as the environmental and economic impacts of warming waters and sea level rise continue to ripple through Maine’s coastal communities, marine research has never been more important to the future of our state.”  On an even broader scale, recent research indicates that the Gulf of Maine is warming faster than 99% of the world’s oceans, positioning the Gulf as a true ‘living laboratory’ that can provide crucial insights into the effect of global climate change.

The hard work of keeping these scientists caffeinated was more than worth the effort and the entire Hurricane Island community felt enriched by their presence.  It was great to see old friends and make new ones and to learn so much about the incredible work that is already being done to understand and sustain our Gulf of Maine.  It is encouraging to think that this is only the beginning of even greater things to come and you can be sure you will find more information in our blog as the partnership between the field stations develops over the next decade.  In the words of Margaret Mead,  “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”

Hopey's Heart Foundation AED Grant

We are pleased to have received a grant from The Hopey’s Heart Foundation AED Grant Program for an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) that is currently in place on Hurricane.

View fullsize

 Josie Gates, Oakley Jackson, Silas Rogers and Boomer.  Hurricane Island Safety Squad

The Hopey’s Heart Foundation was formed in memory of Tina Charles’ late aunt Maureen “Hopey” Vaz, who died of multiple organ failure in 2013.  Hopey was known for having a very giving heart and when her own heart failed it was a tragic loss to her family.  The Hopey’s Heart Foundation was founded to prevent Sudden Cardiac Arrest from claiming the lives of promising student athletes and it is committed to providing AEDs nationally for the prevention of heart and other injuries in student and amateur athletes through the provision of health education and medical equipment in schools, community and recreational centers. 

Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) is the leading cause of death in the United States, with nearly 383,000 out of hospital SCA’s occurring annually. Having an AED close by, especially in a remote environment like Hurricane, can mean the difference between life and death for a victim of SCA. Many victims appear healthy with no known heart disease or other risk factors. SCA is indiscriminate towards race, age & gender. With every minute that goes by, survival rates without AED and other medical intervention drop up to 10 percent. The American Heart Association has reported survival rates of 40-50% where AED programs have been successfully implemented.

We are committed to safety of our participants and the visitors who come to Hurricane Island and are extremely grateful to the Hopey’s Heart Foundation for providing us with this life saving resource that will be added to our rescue and medical equipment on the island. The majority of our staff has been trained in Wilderness First Aid, as Wilderness First Responders or as Wilderness EMT’s.  We hope to never have to use the AED, but are grateful to have it as a resource in the event of an unfortunate emergency.  

Thank you again to The Hopey’s Heart Foundation for providing this amazing and life saving opportunity.

From the Farm-to-Table Kitchen

One of the most popular appetizers from this last Farm-to-Table dinner was beet "sliders," delicious bite-sized beet patties topped with a homemade pickled zucchini relish. Ladleah graciously shared the recipe with us, and we are passing it along to you to enjoy!

View fullsize

I love a good, juicy burger. Whether you are a vegetarian or a meat lover; this veggie burger will satisfy anyone. I prefer cooking these in a cast iron skillet with a bit of olive oil.  Use big dark red beets and sear well on each side. The recipe calls for basil or thyme but I love to use all different herbs depending on the season.  Also feel free to get creative and change up the cheeses!  Just hold to the egg, oats, beet ratio and you'll swear you are eating a medium rare beef burger. You can even make a bunch of patties at once and freeze on a sheet pan.  Once frozen put in pairs or individually wrapped in a ziplock and keep in the freezer for a fast meal. Adapted from Food52. Makes 6-8 good sized burgers.

Ingredients:

1. 3 cups grated beets (about 4-5 large beets)\
2. 1 onion
3. 2 garlic cloves
4. 2 tablespoons olive oil
5. 2 eggs
6. 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
7. 7 ounces goat cheese or feta or grated cheddar
8. 1 handful fresh chopped basil or 1 tsp Thyme (fresh is better, dried okay)
9. 1 generous pinch sea salt
10. several grinds fresh black pepper
11. olive oil for frying

Instructions

1. Peel and grate beets, onion, and garlic on a box grater or use a food processor with grater attachment.
2. Place the grated vegetables in a large mixing bowl
3. Add olive oil, eggs, and rolled oats  and mix well
4. Add cheese, basil or thyme, salt, and pepper and mix well.
5. Let all sit for 30 minutes so the oats can soak up the moisture and the mixture sets.  This step is very important for the patties to hold together.
6. Shape a test patty.  If the mixture feels too loose add a 1/4 cup more oats, let sit.
7. Form patties and sear in a hot, heavy pan (cast iron is best) or brush with olive oil and grill.

Vegan Adaptation

1. substitute tofu for cheese
2. use up to 1/2 cup water and let mixture soak for 1 hour  in the refrigerator to allow more time for the oats to hydrate.

We had a great time this season with the farm-to-table events and we look forward to having everyone out to the island again next year! Be sure to check out our 2016 Calendar for more details about upcoming events.

View fullsize

View fullsize

Living on the Edge Jr 2015

Post by Olivia and Jacque, Program Leads

Learning about bees with Sam, click to see the full photo gallery from the program.

Last Monday, our final program of the summer began. Eight middle school students stepped off the boat beaming with excitement to spend a week on Hurricane Island. The first day was spent exploring the island on a history hike and sustainable systems tour, while eating plenty of raspberries along the way. The students even practiced using a model derrick, a human-powered crane used to move blocks of granite during the quarry era. The rest of the day was spent learning about what it means to be a naturalist and learning how to use tools such as the microscope, hand lens, and binoculars.

Tuesday started off in the lab, where we discussed the basic anatomy of insects and which kinds of insects are pollinators. This led into the next portion of the morning: a field trip to the South End to see Sam’s honey bees! Sam explained to us the three types of honeybees, how the hive is built, and the steps worker bees take to produce honey. We even tried some fresh honey straight from one of the combs! After seeing the bees up close, we raced back to the lab to grab nets and jars to collect our own bugs. The students headed up to the church and shower house, where they found butterflies and a few large spiders as well as plenty of grasshoppers to chase.  Students then drew insects from our own bug collection, and used watercolor to bring the illustrations to life.  After a morning on land, we loaded up on the sailboat in the afternoon and hit the water.  While there wasn’t too much wind, there was plenty of sunshine and laughter aboard the boat. While sailing, we practiced our knots and caught a glimpse of the seals using our binoculars. The group sailed over to neighboring Greens Island to explore turtle rock and some of the beaches. After dinner that night, we took off for Gibbon’s Point to have our evening meeting while the sun set in the distance.

Wednesday morning was devoted to botany and searching the island for edible plants. Before we set out to hike the perimeter, we went over basic plant parts and ways to group plants to make them easier to identify. This prepped us to look for all the plants we could nibble on as we walked. The students learned to identify many types of trees, shrubs, flowers and ferns, and were brave enough to try any and all of the edibles that were presented to them.  Afterwards, we foraged for beach rose, red clover, and raspberries around the island. We then headed to the kitchen, where we whipped up a simple syrup and a raspberry chocolate crumble bars for a lunch time dessert. During free time, we all jumped off the pier and then went fishing off the pier. The afternoon was spent rock climbing in the quarry. Students had a blast challenging themselves to climb different routes on the main face. That night, we fished for squid off the dock (perhaps a Hurricane first!). Although we were not successful catching squid, we played with the bioluminescent plankton in the water. Certain types of plankton utilize chemicals to produce light as a defense mechanism at night. Some plankton even squirt globs of bioluminescent goo to confuse their predators. By moving the water around, you get front row seats to a magical display of lights!

Thursday began with an intertidal exploration at Two Bush Island. Back at the lab, we took a closer look at our intertidal finds, which included a tiny lobster and a very cute lumpfish. We also used delicate species of algae to make colorful seaweed art that students took home with them. Chloe joined us in the afternoon to teach us all about bird adaptations and the kinds of birds we have here on the island. The students learned how different shape and size adaptations make some birds great at swimming while others eat insects on trees! We quietly walked along the shoreline to spot a few sea birds, while also practicing our bird calls. Chloe then challenged us to build a nest that could withstand wind, water and hurricane conditions. Our last night was spent around a warm campfire, where we enjoyed s’mores and sang campfire songs.

The morning of our final day was spent painting birdhouses that were built by previous HICSL students. The students worked in teams to decorate each birdhouse, which will soon be installed around the island. Following our art activity in the morning, the students took off with Olivia and Jacque to tackle a scavenger hunt. We raced around the island in search of hidden clues that brought us to our final riddle: Boomer, our island dog! Saying goodbye to this group was tough, as their enthusiasm for exploring and love for learning was contagious. This group had us laughing, dancing, and singing all week. We hope everyone has a wonderful final stretch of summer and start to the school year!

Wilderness Advanced Life Support

View fullsize

This is the second year we have hosted a Wilderness Advanced Life Support (WALS) certification course on Hurricane. We were joined by a talented group of participants with backgrounds ranging from emergency nurses to an anesthesiologist. One of the most challenging aspects of this course for participants is that they are no longer in a familiar resource-and-expertise-rich hospital environment, and have to improvise with the medical bag they brought to the scene, trying to stabilize a situation without much outside support and working with a real time delay until they can evacuate their patient to definitive medical care. 

View fullsize

Olivia, Alice and Chloe get into character before the final evening scenario

One of my favorite parts of this course is that Hurricane staff get to help out and act as patients during full-group scenarios. During the final evening scenario we got moulage to simulate our bruising and open wounds, and we were also given a laundry list of symptoms and afflictions ranging from a dislocated patella to a traumatic brain injury (TBI) to an amputated hand. Covered in fake blood and strewn across the field, we waited to be approached by the response team. You can learn a lot about emergency situations by participating in a scenario-- it was incredible to hear how the team communicated information about their patients, worked out an evacuation plan, and triaged the situation. They worked calmly and efficiently, and recognized each others expertise in certain areas, passing stabilized patients off to one another in order to fully attend to the more extreme injuries. 

Everyone on the course was up to the challenge and got out of their comfort zone to learn a new set of skills and apply their medical knowledge to dealing with emergencies in a wilderness setting. We are looking forward to more WALs programs, and hope to see everyone who participated back out on Hurricane Island in the future!

Living on the Edge 2015

Post by Olivia Lukacic and Chloe Tremper, Program Leads

We were living on the edge this week - exploring all that Hurricane Island has to offer with five awesome middle school students! For the week of August 9-15, we honed our naturalist skills and furthered our understanding of marine and terrestrial ecosystems through lots of art and exploration. The students arrived on a beautiful, sunny Hurricane day and were only on island for an hour or so before our first brave pier jumper took the plunge into the icy Atlantic! The rest of the day was filled with the always fun history hike with a sustainability twist as well as team building games.

Our first full day as a group started off with a bang! Chloe started the day off teaching about bird adaptations and introducing some of Hurricane’s most common bird species. We looked at what types of wings, beaks, and feet shapes would be best suitable for a variety of conditions, challenged each other to a nest building challenge to see whose nest could withstand the most weight, and played a hilarious game of "here I am, where are you." This game is all about trying to find your partner with a pre-determined call while you are both blindfolded and music is blasting all around. We realized how hard it could be for birds to communicate in their environment and how their songs may be adapted to their environment, while also entertaining some of the HIF staff and visitors. In the afternoon, we went with Jacque into the intertidal to learn about how animals and plants adapt in a constantly changing marine environment. We found amazing things at Two Bush Island including brittle stars, sea stars, hermit crabs, three varieties of other crabs, sea urchins, seas sponge, tunicates, and four lumpfish! We brought our species back to the lab to use our observation skills to draw the creatures and look at them under the microscope.

Tuesday was a botany bonanza! We started off with an island perimeter hike to learn how to identify plants in the field and we also collected plants that caught our eye. Back in the lab, we learned how to use field guides - this involved racing to identify plants using the dichotomous key in Newcomb's Wildflower Guide and a tree-detective game that challenged students to describe plants with proper botany vocabulary and match up mystery species to tress listed in The Forest Trees of Maine. The afternoon was our first day of rock climbing! The students learned how to belay and get used to climbing before moving to the big wall. Once at the big wall, the students were climbing machines – completing some of the most challenging climbs with ease!  After climbing, we stayed at the rock face for a little bit and collected lichens and mosses to take back to the lab and learn about.

Students build birdhouses. Click through for more photos from the program.

Due to some foggy, wet, and windless weather our planned sailing day on Wednesday turned into an awesome art and building day! The students started off the day building and painting their own bird boxes. These weren’t your run of the mill bird boxes, however - these have a plexiglass back that allow the students to observe the nest building process. Each student constructed, painted, and took home their bird box.  Most of the plexiglass was painted over to give the birds’ privacy with viewing holes left unpainted.  The rest of the day was spent exploring the world of bugs and learning about the importance of pollinators.  We played a super fun pollinator game developed by Olivia and used watercolors to make observational drawings Hurricane’s bug collection.

The next day, after another morning of climbing, the students spend the afternoon with Josie Iselin.  Josie is the photographer, author, and designer of seven books all of which focus on the forms in nature we find at hand, especially those found at the beach. Some of her books include An Ocean Garden, Seashells, Heartstones, and Beach: A Book Of Treasure.  Upon her arrival, Josie gave a brief presentation to the students and our staff about herself and her work and then we headed into the intertidal with her to explore all of the different types of seaweed Hurricane’s coast has to offer.  We had a ton of fun holding different seaweeds up to the sun to admire their colorations and aging knotted rack by its bubbles!

The last full day of Living on the Edge consisted of a morning sail over to Crane Island where we picnicked and explored followed by an afternoon of individual project time! The students were given creative freedom to create a piece of art, or multiple pieces, that related to what they did and learned on Hurricane over the past week.  All the projects were AMAZING and very different from one another. Some students worked with washed up buoys from our buoy pile creating sculptures, painting them, and even decorating them with pressed flowers.  One student used leaf prints to create a backdrop for the Hurricane flag and another made a three-dimensional topographic map of Hurricane out of cardboard. 

Students finished up their projects on the final morning and then completed an island-wide scavenger hunt!  The scavenger hunt had the students running all over the island starting off near the galley, heading towards Gibbon’s Point on the north end, then back across the island to points like“the crack,” high cliffs, and the main quarry face.  The scavenger hunt ended with some HIF bumper stickers as the prize and a fun cook-out on the south end.  It was a great way to end a super fun week.  As always we hope the kids had just as much fun as we did and that we see them out on the island next year!