Hurricane Island Updates
It was our pleasure to host some new and familiar faces from Proctor Academy for a weekend of service projects on Hurricane Island. Students participated in a wide variety of helpful ways, including digging trenches, clearing brush, and fixing up an old peapod boat. Despite the wet and cold weather they had high spirits and great enthusiasm. Thank you Proctor students and staff for all of your help!
It is always a pleasure to host students and teachers on Hurricane Island who have never been to the Maine coast before, and this spring we got the chance to do so with 26 students and four chaperones from the Logan School of Creative Learning in Denver, Colorado. Their four-day stay on Hurricane Island was part of a weeklong trip to the East Coast, visiting both Massachusetts and Maine.
Much of the programming for the Logan School students revolved around exploring the intertidal zone and understanding and identifying the sea creatures that call Hurricane’s tidal areas home. Being from Colorado, for many students this was their first experience venturing into intertidal areas. Students were enthusiastic about the diversity of life that they found and raised thoughtful questions about what it takes to live in intertidal climates. Of course, a trip to Hurricane would not be complete without a look at lobsters, and Science Educator Alice Anderson led a lesson in lobster biology as well as a discussion about the Maine lobster industry’s past, present, and future.
Students gather around fish totes to examine their invertebrate collections from the days low tide
Coming from a land locked area of the United States, the Logan School students took great interest in the challenges and opportunities that come with living on a small island, and how the use of sustainable energy can meet these challenges. They identified ways in which Hurricane uses sustainable energy and infrastructure to power the island and gave presentations on how Hurricane’s solar panels and water and compost systems help the island achieve goals in self-sufficiency. During their final reflections many students spoke of the importance that this lesson had on them, and how they will be more conscientious about their own use of energy upon their return home.
A highlight of Logan School’s time on Hurricane was doing a beach clean up along the island’s shores. Students kept track of the debris that they found on the Rozalia Project’s marine debris form that the Center for Science and Leadership will submit to The Rozalia Project to help in their continuous efforts to remove marine debris from the ocean and it’s coastlines. Thank you Logan School students for helping us keep our coastlines beautiful!
Other highlights included hikes to sunset rock, campfires, walks around the island, planting seeds, playing Frisbee, and the season’s first jumps off the pier into the ocean. Summer must be on its way!
Students enjoy a great view from sunset rock.
15 teachers from 12 schools all around Maine (from Fryeburg to Bangor) came out to Hurricane Island April 22, 2014 to enjoy Earth Day and learn more about the programs we offer and design for schools. We are so excited to be able to share our island with new educators and are looking forward to getting more new schools from Maine out to explore, discover, and learn on Hurricane!
Teachers gather to learn about the sustainable infrastructure that helps us reduce our impact while we do programs on Hurricane
This past winter, Casco Bay High School seniors Neil, Clare, and Lizzy collaborated with Hurricane Island Foundation to design and lead a four-day expedition on Hurricane during late spring for sixteen of their fellow high school peers and two chaperones. The expedition was called, “How To Be Comfortable Being Uncomfortable In the Outdoors,” and focused on bringing young people together through time spent in the outdoors. The idea came about for their senior project, a great example of how Casco Bay High School’s model as an Expeditionary Learning Mentor School encourages students to engage and take the lead with their learning.
Despite chilly temperatures and a morning waking up to snow, students fully engaged with their surroundings on Hurricane. Neil, Clare, and Lizzy did a great job at creating and leading daily lessons, which included leadership exercises, hiking and exploring the island, learning about Hurricane Island’s history, teaching and implementing Leave No Trace practices, and a two-hour reflective solo.
They also incorporated an element of service learning into their time on Hurricane. Every morning students helped Hurricane staff with various projects around the island including landscaping, building repairs and cleaning, and brush clearing, which proved to be a tremendous help.
During the students’ final night on Hurricane, Neil, Clare, and Lizzy led a reflection circle, prompting students to think about their time on Hurricane, how it was impactful, and what lessons from their experience they hoped to translate into their life back home. Reflections resonated around how grateful they were for the relationships they made with their peers in thanks to the close and connected community that Hurricane Island’s environment encourages. Casco Bay High School’s experience was a great example of how Hurricane Island can be used as a site for implementing tremendous leadership skills and making close connections with your fellow island peers.
We are excited to have finalized the team out on Hurricane Island for this summer! Chloe and Collin will be joining the rest of the Hurricane Island staff in late June, as our science education and research interns. Both Collin and Chloe will be working on their own independent research project in addition to helping instruct our ISLE and SEAL programs, so stay tuned for updates about their research on our science blog!
Collin Li, University of Miami
Chloe Tremper, University of Vermont
Originally from Flushing, New York, Collin is currently a Junior studying Marine Biology at the University of Miami in Miami, Florida. He found out very quickly that he enjoyed being out in the field more than being locked up in a classroom, leading him to spend a summer working with the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association in Chelatna Lake, Alaska. But the classroom setting is no stranger to him seeing as he spent another summer working with the Columbia University Summer High School Program as a teacher's assistant for a course on Biological Conservation. Currently, he is working with the RJ Dunlap Marine Conservation Program as a topside and underwater photographer for program participants performing shark tagging procedures. Looking into the future, he hopes to combine his love of the outdoors, passion for education outreach, and interest in capturing moments through the lens into a single occupation. In his pastime, he enjoys reading, playing capoeira, and going on spontaneous adventures.
Chloe was born and raised in Virginia, but has spent the past three years studying Wildlife Biology and Natural Resource Ecology at the University of Vermont. While at UVM, she has worked as a lab instructor for a natural history and field ecology course and assisted in the development of new learning modules. She has had a lifelong love for the natural world and enjoys sharing her passion for the outdoors with everyone she meets. Chloe spends most of her free time in Vermont exploring the Champlain Valley and Green Mountains. While not in Vermont, she can be found tracking jaguars in Belize, studying in Antarctica, researching sylvatic plague in Utah, or landscaping in Virginia.
Yesterday, Thursday, April 10, Sam and I finished installing the solar panels on the roof of the boathouse! The full array can generate 6 KW, and it powers our kitchen, galley, and the boathouse. This array will help us continue to operate with minimal fossil fuel dependency. It was a beautiful, sunny day on Hurricane, and we are excited to continue to prepare the island for our upcoming season.
Walt and Jason Day start the pile burning
On Sunday, the 9th of February, 2014, many years of debris that had been appropriately piled along the south end of the island was finally burned! The debris ran the gamut from endless hours of volunteer trail maintenance to old pallets and cast away material from many of the renovations that have occured as we update our facilities on the island. The weather was ideal, with light breezes out of the north and snow forecasted overnight. With the help of Jason, Walt, and Alex Day, Mike Mesko, Owen Williams, Barney, Maddie, and Sam Hallowell, Alice Anderson, Hannah Tannebring, and Ben Hoops the large pile swiftly vanished to expose the magical views from the south end. It is our hope to use this space to continue establishing vegetable gardens on the island using straw bales as our growing medium.
A view of the blaze from the cliffs above the quarry
The remains of the burn pile show a new vista from Hurricane!
