Island Updates

Programs

Wilderness First Responder

Playing out a scenario means that students are engaged both as patients and as responders-- here a student records and assesses the severity of the situation

We are pleased to announce that there are eight newly trained and certified Wilderness First Responders ready to go out and troubleshoot injuries from sprained ankles to lightning strikes. With guidance from their qualified and fearless Wilderness Medical Associates leader, Deborah, students systematically learned the symptoms of and how to respond to acute stress reactions, compensated volume shock, traumatic brain injuries, hypothermia, and anaphylaxis, among other wilderness emergencies.

These programs are hands-on and active, so students were setting up scenarios all around Hurricane. The reality of these scenarios was also reinforced by the fact that Hurricane is 12 miles offshore, and removed from immediate access to definitive care.  The staff got used to pretend shrieks for help, and the sight of someone walking around the kitchen sporting a fake wound or washing off fake blood was the new baseline for the week.

It is always a pleasure to support wilderness medical training programs, as we look forward to the five-day WFR program as well as a WALS and WEMT programs coming up in August! There is still space in the programs, so reserve your spot by registering today!

“I can’t think of any location better suited for our week-long WFR training. From brilliant sunrises in the boathouse to outdoor showers overlooking the working waterfront to days spent in our rustic classroom to sunset picnics on the beach, Hurricane Island provided an inspiring environment that promoted a sense of camaraderie that made our experience one for the memory books. I treasure my time spent on the island, and look forward to soon returning to the island, her people and her food!”
— Keryn G. WFR Participant

A student gets moulage to act the part of a patient who fell off a ladder in a scenario

Responders team up to safely extricate their patient to a different location so they can properly examine him during a scenario

Newly graduated WFRs!

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Epiphany School

Taking a break along the perimeter trail hike

Few places were left unexplored this past week during our outstanding program with students from the Epiphany School in Boston. We were joined by 16 energetic students and three chaperones for a four-day program that included a little bit of everything, from learning about the natural history of the island to fun leadership activities and rock climbing and sailing in Penobscot Bay!

We started the program learning about the ways that Hurricane Island operates off the grid, and showed students where our power and water comes from as well as how we deal with our food-waste and generate new soil for our gardens through composting.

The second day was a nice mix of learning about the birds on Hurricane with bird bingo and a bird hike (we spotted warblers, sparrows, eider ducks, and eagles throughout the program!), a history hike, and time spent out on Two Bush Island exploring low tide and flipping rocks in search of fun invertebrates. After that we enjoyed a big sailing day: the wind was blowing 15 knots out of the North all morning and then out of the West at 6 knots so we enjoyed full sails and sunny weather--a perfect day to spend on the water.

The rest of the program was packed with rock climbing adventures, learning about lobsters, and going on a botany hike. Rock climbing is definitely not just about the climber: all of the participants took time to learn how to carefully belay each other and communicate between climber and belayer to keep everyone safe and challenging each other to scale up the granite rock face. 

It is always fun to learn about the lobster industry, and students played with herring bait, learned about the lobster life cycle, and went out on the boat with Oakley to watch him haul his recreational lobster traps. Unfortunately, we ended up throwing back everything we caught because the lobsters weren't legal sized! So we had to take a rain check on a lobster dinner, but I suppose that means we will need to get all these wonderful students back out to Hurricane again! 

Bird bingo in action

Enjoying sunset after a busy day

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Waldorf School at Moraine Farm

Low tide on Two Bush Island with Heron's Neck Lighthouse in the background.

We were happy to host students from the Waldorf School at Moraine Farm for their 8th grade graduation trip from June 7-11, 2015. We started the program by exploring the intertidal between Two Bush Island and Hurricane, where we found green crabs, sea urchins, hermit crabs, sea stars, nudibranchs, and tons of periwinkles! We lucked out with some of the best tides of June, so we got to explore further out in the low intertidal than usual and also saw an amazing range of algae and new tide pools. After a snack break we switched gears to take a look at Maine's lobster fishery and see Oakley in action hauling his recreational lobster traps. While we caught a lot of lobsters, only two were legal-sized, so unfortunately we didn't have a lobster dinner that night. 

We spied tons of beautiful songbirds including American Redstarts, Northern Parula, Cedar Waxwings, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and Black-Throated Green Warblers!

Another highlight of the program was learning about some of the commonly seen birds on Hurricane and their songs. After a quick summary, we headed out on a birding hike to see what we could spy through our binoculars. The highlight was right at the end, where we saw a flock of cedar waxwings in the apple trees. Cedar waxwings are particularly fond of eating apple petals, so we were able to get really close to observe them without startling them. Some other birds we saw were northern parula, american redstarts, black-throated green warblers, a golden crowned kinglet, and a song sparrow. We also heard the red breasted nuthatch and got more familiar with learning to identify birds through their songs.

We started off with a little rowing, but then the wind picked up for smooth sailing!

The weather had been a bit gray during the program, but on June 10 the sun came out just in time for a beautiful (and windy!) sail out to Bald Island. While we were underway, we continued bird watching and spied bald eagles, osprey, eider ducks, cormorants, and black guillemots. Bald Island was fun to explore with tons of tide pools and bold granite faces. During the quarry era, Bald Island was the source for most of the granite that makes up the Rockland Breakwater, so it has a similar history to Hurricane.

Another big part of this program was rock climbing! Students learned how to safely belay and support each other on the rocks, and we had a chance to climb on a smaller wall and then moved to the main quarry face, which has some challenging and technical climbs! 

Congratulations to the 8th grade class, we hope you enjoy a relaxing summer before your next big adventure in high school! See you back out on Hurricane again soon!

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Wildlife Habitat & Population Measurement UVM

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Post by Science Educator Chloe Tremper

Looking at habitat suitability in the field

Twenty students and two professors from the University of Vermont’s Wildlife Habitat & Population Measurement course spent this past week on Hurricane Island. Professors Allan Strong and Jed Murdoch used Hurricane as a platform to teach field methods for estimating wildlife populations and measuring habitat variables to their students. This course focused on three methods commonly used in the fields of wildlife biology and ecology: mark-recapture, point counts, and habitat suitability index measurements. 

Mark & recapture studies are used to estimate the number of individuals within a species’ population. On Hurricane, the UVM students used this method to estimate the population size of small mammals on the island, as well as determine which species were present.  During their first day on Hurricane, the students broke into four groups and set up grids with 100 traps each on different parts of the island.  The traps were opened early each morning with a sprinkling of oats and some scraps of paper towel placed in each as food and nesting materials.  The traps used were Sherman traps, which are a box-style animal trap designed for live capture of small mammals. When the students checked the traps a few hours later, students recorded whether a trap was open and empty, closed and empty, or closed with a capture inside.  For each individual small mammal that was caught, the students marked a bit of its fur with a marker so that if it was caught again later it could be identified.  As traps were checked, the students were careful to close each so that no animals would be trapped for an extended period of time.

The students also learned how to conduct bird point counts, which are useful for monitoring avian population trends.   Four locations were designated along different trails that students would go to once a day to conduct a count in their smaller groups.  At their first point they did a 30-minute point count.  To do this, the first 10 minutes at the point all birds heard or seen were recorded, the second 10 minutes only new birds that were not noted during the first, and for the third 10 minutes only new birds again were recorded. Over their days there each group did a 30-minute point count at each of the four sites and a few 10-minute point counts at the remaining sites.

On their second to last day on the island, the students went out in the spruce-fir forest of Hurricane to measure multiple habitat variables to determine if the habitat available on Hurricane is suitable for snowshoe hares and downy woodpeckers, neither of which are known to reside on Hurricane.  However, both species habitat preferences were relevant for the purpose of learning how to implement the sampling technique.  Habitat suitability indexes are available for variety species through the USGS National Wetlands Research Center. 

We were sad to see this lively bunch of students leave at the end of the week but enjoyed getting to know them & appreciated the data they provided us!

Students enjoy Sunset Rock

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Nobleboro Middle School

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Students share creative maps they drew showing their journey to Hurricane Island

Students work with Josie to come up with words and attitudes they want to keep on and off Hurricane during their program

From May 27-29 we were joined by 10 enthusiastic middle school students from Nobleboro, ME for a program filled with rock climbing, hiking, exploring the intertidal, and field journaling. Josie and I had a chance to visit students in the classroom before they came out to Hurricane Island. This meant we could answer questions about the trip and work with students to identify ways to make their group experience stronger and how they could positively contribute to Hurricane's community. Finally, we helped students design their own field journals and then went out on the school's beautiful nature trail to make some plant observations and drawings.

Students arrived on Hurricane mid-morning on the 27th, so they had time to move into the bunkhouse and go on a fun island perimeter hike before lunch. After lunch we spent time learning about the sustainable systems that Hurricane uses to operate our campus. Students learned how solar panels work, where our water comes from, and how we use food compost in our island gardens. Finally, we talked about how maps can be a tool to help communicate information and then students got creative and drew maps depicting the trip to Hurricane.

Learning to rock climb and belay requires good communication and trust

On the second day we spent the whole morning rock-climbing! Students learned how to both climb rocks and belay each other, how to tie a figure-eight retrace knot, and how to communicate and climb safely. 

Low tide happened just after lunch, so we explored between Hurricane and Two-Bush Island where we found all sorts of cool and slimy critters. We even helped clean off the mooring balls to find extra long sugar kelp and a spider crab! 

Some other highlights from the trip included learning about Maine's lobster industry and going on a botany hike to learn some of the forest wildflowers and trees that are commonly seen on hikes in Maine. We had a great time adventuring with these students, and we hope to see them out on Hurricane again soon!

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Ashwood Waldorf School

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Looking at lichens in the lab with Alice before the lichen hike

Enjoying the intertidal on Two-Bush Island

The Ashwood Waldorf School from Rockport, Maine joined us on Hurricane for two days of island exploration. For the Botany focus of this program Alice took them on a walk around the island to find and identify the three main categories lichens: crustose, foliose, and fruticose. Another hike focused on the wild edible plants on the island, as well as what plants are flowering out during this stage of spring. Students also got a chance to explore the intertidal area between Hurricane and Two Bush Island. They found lots of fun and interesting intertidal creatures, and learned how kelp survives as a marine plant.

The last day was spent rock climbing. Students learned about different types of climbing gear, how to boulder on granite blocks that were cut from the main face over a century ago, and how to belay and support one another while climbing. Everyone completed their own successful climbs and enjoyed being able to reach the top and enjoy the view out over the open ocean.

One of the best parts of this program was having Ashwood’s program overlap with Nobleboro Middle School. While it can be a dance for us instructors of who is teaching what to who, when and where, it’s great to see us all gathered together at meal times, sharing our island stories from the day!

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Cambridge School of Weston 2015

After towing around a fine-mesh net to collect plankton, students spent time looking into their microscopes trying to identify the critters wiggling around in their petri dishes. 

Learning about what it takes to be a lobsterman from Jason Day

Marilyn works with students in the intertidal between Hurricane and Two Bush Island to make sure their methods are supporting their driving question

For the second year in a row (read about last year's program here), the Cambridge School of Weston came out to Hurricane Island during the lowest tide cycle of May. Seven students and two staff joined the Hurricane community, conducting independent intertidal projects as well as two group projects focused on the quarry and on identifying marine zooplankton.

Students arrived on the island with lots of ideas for their independent projects, and after the first few days exploring Hurricane's rocky intertidal environment, they worked to modify their ideas into testable questions. 

Their projects ranged from observing parental care of dog whelks over their egg patches, to determining whether different species of hermit crabs preferred to be more or less roomy in their shell, to quantifying the range of shell colors in smooth periwinkles and whether that impacted the type of brown algae they were most often associated with. 

Low tide doesn't always wait for breakfast, so students had a few early days, heading out to their study sites by 6:30am! Doing field work in the intertidal can also be challenging because there is just about an hour-long window of time to gain access to your study site before the next low-tide cycle. This meant students had to have all of their scientific gear organized, and a clear plan for their sampling strategy in order to collect the data they needed each day.

Another goal of this program was for students to learn about some of the fisheries that are core to Maine's identity. We travelled out on Vinalhaven fisherman Jason Day's lobster boat to see him haul his traps, learn about the regulations in the industry, and get a sense of the ratio of lobsters that are thrown back to 'keepers.' We also spent time talking about Maine's scallop fishery with Cait Cleaver, our director of science and research. Cait shared about the research she is coordinating to look at the effectiveness of small-scale closures in managing the scallop fishery. After learning about her project, we all helped her build spat bags, which she will deploy in the fall to collect larval scallops. If larval scallops are found in or around the closed area, these data can help Cait get a sense of whether new scallops are settling in the area.

It was a pleasuring hosting this group and I am always impressed by the observations and creative questions that students generate when they have a chance to be immersed in field work! We look forward to seeing the finished reports of the projects, and for next year's group to build on the great ideas and questions from this program!

Be sure to check out the CSW blog about their experience for more photos!

Students enjoy a great view of the sun setting across the bay

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Gould Academy visits Hurricane

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A group of Gould Academy sophomores joined us for three days on Hurricane for a mixture of fun and adventurous activities. This was a particularly international group of students and we enjoyed hearing multiple languages spoken on the island!

The first afternoon they worked together to do a beach clean up along Hurricane’s Western shoreline. They picked up over 350 pieces of trash! The next day was a combination of service projects, leadership initiatives, and rock climbing. They were our first group to scramble up our climbing walls this year. The evening was topped off with a view of the sunset up at sunset rock followed by a campfire complete with marshmallows.

On their last day they learned about the quarry town that used to reside on Hurricane nearly a century ago. They also learned about Maine’s lobster industry and got a chance to haul a few of our lobster traps off of Hurricane’s shore.

It wouldn’t be a Gould trip without a lot of swimming. Students jumped into the frigid ocean every day, for many it was their first time swimming in the Atlantic. This was our second year hosting Gould on Hurricane, we hope to welcome them back again next year! 

Cold water doesn't scare these kids!

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