Maine

Businesses Get Customized Hazard-Readiness Scores and Recommendations

The Takeaway: The research reserve administered a self-assessment for businesses to become more resilient in the face of hazardous weather.

Environmental Educators Tailor Lessons to Diverse Student Needs

The Takeaway: Students of the coast love to learn when educators reach them where they are—whether that’s online, in the field, or through the wisdom of their own culture and stewardship traditions.

Forest Management Program Developed by Research Reserve

The Takeaway: Maine is the most forested state in the nation; good forest management practices play an important role in maintaining water quality and wildlife habitat.

Grants and Regional Group Tackle Coastal Flooding Concerns

The Takeaway: More than 39 of Maine’s coastal communities benefited from resilience-related data and technical assistance.

Groundbreaking Study Uses Reserves to Evaluate Restoration Success

The Takeaway: Newly standardized performance measures make it easier and more economical to evaluate wetland restoration projects.

Learning about Estuarine Ecosystems in American Sign Language

The Takeaway: Three New England research reserves, the Center for Research and Training at The Learning Center for the Deaf, and Boston University created an immersive instructional experience for educators of the Deaf. The benefits keep adding up.

NOAA Expands Coastal Opportunities for People with Disabilities

The Takeaway: Creating sign language for “estuary” and other coastal terms, and trails that accommodate wheelchairs and the needs of the visually impaired—these are just two of the contributions from research reserves and coastal zone management programs.

NOAA Helps Maine Communities Assess, and Expand, Working Waterfront Economy

The Takeaway: NOAA’s economic-analysis resources and workshops uncover the power of working waterfronts.

Native Americans Play Critical Roles in Many NOAA Projects

The Takeaway: We take a look at the great things that can happen when NOAA and Indigenous communities work together on coastal issues.

New Hampshire “Green Credits” Process Okayed by Two Regulators

The Takeaway: “Credit for Going Green” provides a strategy for earning regulatory credits by installing natural buffers, plus a way to calculate buffer pollution-removal rates, with support from four national estuarine research reserves and NOAA’s Science Collaborative program.

Programs Improve Public Access for All

The Takeaway: NOAA safeguards coastal public access and inclusive adventures through the efforts of the National Coastal Zone Management Program and National Estuarine Research Reserve System.

Research Reserve Became State’s First 100% Solar-Powered Nonprofit

The Takeaway: The effort is generating 73,000 kilowatt hours and offsets 90,000 pounds of carbon dioxide each year.

Study Finds Mainers Would Make Tradeoffs to Preserve Ecosystem Services

The Takeaway: Wells research reserve helped develop a way to estimate ecosystem values and tradeoffs—useful information for making difficult decisions about the environment.

Study of 15 Research Reserves Finds Crabs Pose No Large-Scale Salt Marsh Threat

The Takeaway: While specific crab species can cause local damage, rising seas appear to be a bigger threat to salt marshes nationwide.

Tide Station Data Can Be Lifesaving

The Takeaway: Near-real-time data, plus research reserve expertise, helped a Maine fire chief decide to evacuate residents during a fierce nor’easter.

Wade into Estuary Recreation at a NOAA Research Reserve

The Takeaway: Paddling azure waterways. Casting a line for that delectable campsite dinner. Spying an elusive warbler in a birder’s paradise. These adventures and many more await.