Marine Ecology ISLE

Students search through scallop "spat" bags with Field Research Coordinator, Cait Cleaver

Our third and final ISLE program focused on the marine environment surrounding Hurricane Island. Students spent the first part of the week helping our field research coordinator Cait Cleaver with her summer research project focused on scallops. Students counted larval scallops that Cait collected at several sampling sites in Penobscot Bay. This project helped students understand what it means to do hands on field research with delicate specimens, and to be meticulous and accurate in collecting and measuring their subjects.

This week also caught the best tides and students spent several low tide cycles out exploring the intertidal zone. Students helped summer intern Collin Li pilot an annual intertidal monitoring survey and got hands on experience using transects, quadrates, and field guides to properly key out invertebrates for accurate data collection.

One of the highlights of the program was a fun day fishing off of Hurricane and Greens Island for mackerel and pollack. For some it was their first fishing experience but we came back with a huge catch. Students spent the rest of the day learning how to fillet and dissect their fish, and some even enjoyed smocked mackerel on their pizza for dinner.

Fun with Sugar Kelp

The Rozalia Project For A Clean Ocean, one of our partner organizations, visited Hurricane during this program and showed students their remotely operated vehicle, Hector the Collector, which they use to extricate marine debris from the ocean floor in a non-invasive way. The Rozalia project also took students out on a beach cleanup and challenged them to create public service announcements about the problem of marine debris.

Students also spent a day exploring Vinalhaven after learning about Maine’s lobster fishery and hauling traps with local fisherman, Jason Day. On Vinalhaven students got to see the working waterfront and witness the “fish cannon” at Vinalhaven’s own lobster co-op. The rest of the day was spent swimming in the quarry and enjoying ice cream on a hot summers day. We had a fantastic time with this energetic group and enjoyed their enthusiasm for the marine environment. 

Register for our 2015 Marine Ecology ISLE program here!

LNT collaborative programs with Overland

This summer The Hurricane Island Center For Science and Leadership collaborated with Overland to host six separate groups as a stop-over on their Maine Coast Leadership expeditions. The goal for their time on Hurricane was to become certified Leave No Trace trainers. 

To become certified trainers students had to pick one of the seven LNT principles and make a creative presentation on that principle that they then could teach to the rest of the group. This method of training helped students practice public speaking and leadership as they taught their group in an interactive lesson. Several of the Overland students got very creative with their LNT activities. Some highlights included an LNT game show, which was a Jeopardy game created by students that divided categories built around one of the priciples. Some students led the whole group on a hike to find proper pristine camping areas, which had to be 200 feet from water and on a proper camping surface.

Students enjoy some marshmallows cooked on using the mound fire technique.

A favorite principle among all groups was “Minimize Campfire Impact.” During this lesson kids got the chance to learn how to make a proper campfire that has no impact on the environment. This required students putting a tarp on the ground and covering it with six inches of dirt. They then found sticks that were already dead, down, and smaller than their wrists, as well as some already down birch bark, which is a great natural fire starter. After they started their fire with their collected sticks and bark we had time to roast and enjoy s’mores. When the fire had completely burned out students were able to lift the tarp and distribute the soil and ash evenly across the ground. The earth underneath the tarp doesn’t even get warm!

Another favorite principle for students to teach was dispose of waste properly. Some kids showed the proper technique for catching food particles in gray water, and how to disperse water (and toothpaste) evenly over a landscape rather than pour it on the ground all in one spot. Others showed the technique for disposing of human waste properly, specifically by acting out the “8 D’s of Dumping”: Desire, Distance, Dig, Drop, Dump, Disguise, Disinfect, and most importantly, Dance.

We thoroughly enjoyed welcoming over 60 Overland students to Hurricane this summer, as well as their amazing leaders Abby Conyers, Fischer Hazen, Maggie Hughes, and Jeremiah Firman. We hope to welcome Overland back next year! 

Botany ISLE 2014

We had a fantastic 10 days with students who came from out to Hurricane from as far as New York City to learn about the wildflowers, trees, vines, and shrubs on Hurricane Island. The week started off by looking at Hurricane’s gardens and the difference between domestic and wild edible plants. Students learned about soil health and compost, how to manage a straw bale garden, and the difference between linear and sustainable farming and gardening practices. They also learned how crop rotation can keep plant pests at bay as well as contribute to the overall health of a garden.

Students key into leaf characteristics to help identify the difference between quaking and big-tooth aspen trees.

We also challenged students to plan out the meadow garden plot for next years garden. They did a fantastic job and adhered to crop rotation practices as well as suggested a few new plants that we should try to grow. Students took an afternoon to get their hands dirty in our gardens and helped turn over the adjacent plot to the meadow garden to expand it for next year. They also planted seedlings in new rows and put fresh compost in our flower garden. This focus of farming and gardening during the beginning of the Botany program led to a field trip to Turner Farm on North Haven Island, where they were able to explore and learn about what a large scale sustainable farm looks like.

After domestic plants we moved on to wild edibles and students learned to identify and forage for sorrel, cattails, beach peas, orach, elderberry flowers, and raspberries, which they concocted into a Hurricane sourced meal, which was also supplemented by the vegetables and herbs grown in our gardens.

Each morning featured a different category of plant and students learned all the vocabulary and identification techniques to properly key out the most common wild flowers, trees, and ferns on Hurricane.

As a fun final project students collaborated to create a botany themed rap song, which featured some of their favorite plants that they learned about over their ten-day stay.   

Register for our 2015 Botany ISLE program here! 

Ornithology ISLE 2014

For our first ISLE program of the season we had five boys join us for a week of ornithology themed activities including bird-house building, bird bingo, and morning bird hikes. By the end of the program students were able to identify by site and sound the top 25 birds that call Hurricane home during our summer season.

Students also enjoyed some silly moments trying on bird costumes (like the Osprey in this photo) to learn more about how different birds are adapted to the environment that they live in. 

Some of the birds that we were able to see during the week were Cedar Waxwings, Bald Eagles, Ospreys, Yellow-Rumped Warblers, and Winter Wrens. We helped students visualize bird songs by looking at spectrograms and they were challenged to come up with their own mnemonics to remember the unique songs for each bird. Some standard mnemonics that professional birders use are “witchity-witchity-witchity” for the Common Yellowthroat Warbler, and “Oh Sam peabody-peabody-peabody” for the White-Throated Sparrow.

The Red-Billed Tropicbird flies next to a Tern

One of the highlights of the week was a special day trip out to see offshore nesting seabird colonies on Seal Island with local naturalist and ornithologist John Drury. John took us around the perimeter of Seal Island and then we were met by Nicole, a researcher with Project Puffin, who is living on the island this summer monitoring puffin and tern chicks at their nesting sites. Birds that nest on Seal Island during the summer include Razorbills, Puffins, Great Cormorants, Common and Arctic Terns, Eider Ducks, and Black Guillemots. We were also lucky enough to see a Red-Billed Tropicbird, an out-of-range visitor to the area, which usually is found along the Baja Peninsula on the West Coast of Mexico.  John Drury believes that this bird followed some Terns and has been happily nesting in the area since.

On our final evening we enjoyed a cookout on the south end of the island and a spectacular view of the full moon rising over the water. It was really fun to watch these students get excited about birding and become talented amateur ornithologists!

Students enjoy a quiet moment as the full moon rises over Heron's Neck lighthouse

Register for our 2015 Ornithology ISLE program here! 

Meet the HIF Fleet

Post by Oakley Jackson, Program Instructor

The Hurricane fleet has grown! We now have a boat for every purpose and, let me tell you, they are all fine vessels. Our most recent additions to the fleet are three fiberglass sea kayaks, soon to be named Flicker, Redstart, and Heron. These brand new kayaks were generously donated to the foundation and everyone on the staff is grateful for the all the opportunities they offer.

Oakley on Greased Lightning with Reliance in the background

Also new to our dock is Grease Lightning, a 15’ foot long aluminum utility outboard. Grease Lightning’s rugged build makes her an ideal workboat and she is the perfect size for zipping into Vinalhaven to pick up our farm share, fill water jugs or do whatever else we may need. Perhaps the best part about Grease Lightning is her name and her highly fashionable new yellow lightning bolts (thanks Foxi Printworks!) down her sides indicating the immense speeds she is capable of traveling… 

The next step up from Grease Lightning is the vessel that is my personal favorite, Fifth Generation, a Banks Cove lobster boat with an inboard diesel Volkswagen engine and pot hauler. Fifth Generation is highly efficient on fuel and is a huge help with the handful of lobster traps we have set off the shore of Hurricane. Sam has a recreational license for five traps and the bounty of these goes on our table in the form of lobster rolls. So far the catch has been minimal, with many of the lobsters being just under the measure. Yesterday Sam caught thirty-one bugs out of the five traps and not a one of them was of legal size. HIF also possesses a special research license for twenty traps, but these have yet to go in the water.

Up from Fifth Generation there is Eastern Flyer, our speedboat for jetting to and from Rockland. Eastern Flyer gets her name from John Steinbeck and Dr. Ed Ricketts’s research vessel, Western Flyer, which they used to collect specimens around the Sea of Cortez. We thought the name was a good fit as Eastern Flyer is also used for oceanic research, such as filming lobster cannibalism and setting scallop spat bags. Eastern Flyer can be used to transport six students at a time with one of our licensed captains driving. With groups that are too large for the Flyer we have Reliance, a 37’ long transport vessel which we are leasing from Outward Bound. Reliance can carry twenty-five passengers and is capable of managing some sizable seas as we have experienced this spring.

One of The Twins (Pollux) out for a sail to Spectacle Island in 2013

We also have twin sailboats, Castor and Pollux, which we are leasing from The Apprenticeshop in Rockland. These beautiful vessels will be used during our ISLE programs to teach team building and seamanship skills, as well as explore the nearby White Islands. All in all it is a complete fleet and one that we are very proud of. 

First Impressions of Hurricane Island: Alyssa

Post by Alyssa Hall, summer intern.

I consider myself to be pretty environmentally savvy. I religiously recycle, I bring my own bags to the grocery store, I attend my local farmers market as much as I can (probably twice a month or so) and I’m even pursuing my Masters degree in Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. As such, I am constantly inundated with the concept of sustainability. So much so that I think I had forgotten what it really meant—that is, until I walked ashore on Hurricane Island. As soon as I arrived, I was instantly reminded that it isn’t just a concept. In fact, with just a little bit of focus, it’s achievable.

When I found out I was hired by the Hurricane Island Center for Science and Leadership in March, I needed some way to try and get my bearings. Having never been to Maine before, I poured over the foundation’s website to learn as much as I could about where I was going to be spending my summer. It was very apparent to me that this community took pride in their sustainability efforts on the island. And as soon as I got here, I knew that was true.

It is amazing for an organization like Hurricane Island to be so excited by the opportunity to be sustainable even in today’s world, which is so focused on practicality. They really have thought of everything. From the multitudes of solar panels and water heaters, composting toilets, constructed wastewater treatment wetlands, Hurricane Island has done everything it can to create a sustainable community. Sustainability has become an inner mantra and is engrained in everything we do here.

My job this summer is to work with this amazing group of people to develop the educational programs that we offer. But really, my job is already done. All that I need to do is show you what this amazing island community is all about and I can guarantee you’ll want come here. No matter what you do this summer, make sure you get here. Come visit with an open mind and an open heart, and it will be an experience to remember. Keep your eyes and ears open, and I’ll see you on the island.

How do our gardens grow?

Post by Josie Gates

It is with great enthusiasm that we are pushing forward with growing more of our own food on Hurricane Island this summer. Along with some in-ground beds and above-ground planters we are testing our green thumb by trying a straw bale garden in an old granite foundation that is close to the galley. The bales are a great above-ground option for growing vegetables and flowers, and you can grow almost anything in them! On Hurricane we are interested in comparing how our food grows in the bales compared to our in ground plots. Here are some things we have learned about straw bale gardens:

Our newly planted straw bale garden! Can you spy the nasturtiums growing out the side of the bales?

To get the straw bales to start decomposing and ready for planting you have to go through a conditioning process. For ten days we conditioned our bales by each day putting about half a cup of fertilizer high in nitrogen on top and then soaking them completely through with water. This process gets the bales to start “cooking,” by breaking down the straw and starting the decomposing process. Once the bales have started to decompose they are a great holder for plants, allowing root systems to grow down into the bale just like they would in soil.

Our garden up in the meadow past the ice pond.

After the bales have been conditioned you can either transplant directly into the bale or plant seeds on top. We have decided to put transplants into our straw bales. To plant transplants we carved out a spot within the soil on top of the bale for the transplant and its roots and covered it with sterile potting soil. We have then watered and cared for them as usual.  So far everything seems to be growing happily, despite some regular raccoon visits...

A special thank you to all of our community members who have donated seeds, seedlings, and flowers to our gardens this year. Your generosity is greatly appreciated!

Here’s to a fruitful season of growing food and flowers on Hurricane! 

June 2014 Volunteer Day

After an evening of torrential downpour and heavy winds, our June 14 volunteer proved to be a beautiful AND productive day! We welcomed new faces and old friends out to the island, where we managed to set up our four canvas wall tents for the summer, re-shingle one side of the dockhouse, and finish digging a ditch to connect our solar system to the lab and the clivus bathrooms, among other projects! As always, we couldn't have done it without the great enthusiasm and hard work of our volunteers! Thanks a billion!