The Great Bay Living Shoreline Project has selected four locations where teams of professional engineers, landscape architects, and ecologists will be developing suggested living shoreline designs. The four sites were chosen to illustrate the potential for living shoreline approaches to be adapted for different site conditions and diverse landowner goals.
Our new Coastal Training Program Coordinator has arrived, and we cannot wait for you to meet her. Lynn Vaccaro grew up in the seacoast region of NH and spent the last 12 years at Michigan Sea Grant and the University of Michigan Water Center. With training as an educator and a scientist and extensive experience working with researchers, decision makers and local communities in the Great Lakes region, Lynn is a perfect fit to lead municipal outreach and technical assistance for the Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. Most recently, Lynn has been the collaborative research manager for the NERRS Science Collaborative. In Michigan Lynn ran research competitions, facilitated sharing between projects, organized workshops and learning opportunities, led communication efforts, and developed resources for scientists interested in connecting their work to coastal management. Please help us welcome Lynn back to the seacoast and into her new role with New Hampshire Fish and Game.
Our staff are lucky to spend their professional lives trying to deepen our understanding of Great Bay. Our interest in the estuary includes investigating how people relate to Great Bay now, and how they have throughout history. Our cultural history and natural history are interdependent, and whether we are reflecting on Native American summer camps on our shores, colonial trading aboard the Gundalow, the industrial mills our rivers powered, or the current debates about the impacts of development. It is always a thrill to link specific historic activities and trends to the lands that we now steward and to be given an opportunity to interpret both the natural resource and the history of Great Bay. Last week, GBNERR hosted a Lunch and Learn that illuminated the history of a specific Wildlife Management Area within GBNERR, Glenn Cove.
Now is the time for me to say thank you and goodbye. It is never easy to leave a job you love with people you enjoy working with as part of an organization that has a mission and approach that fits and feels just right.
Hello again. Here we are still at home watching spring come into full bloom. Or trying too…I keep waiting for the trees and shrubs to come into full leaf and so far they’ve barely budded, which gives me a great opportunity to observe birds in all their spring behaviors of actively building nests and singing new songs.
Hiking, mountain biking, bird watching, and horseback riding are just some of the ways we get outside to enjoy nature and relax. However, even these seemingly low-key activities can have a negative impact on wildlife by reducing their abundance, reproductive success, or even survival. A new mapping tool and guide called Trails for People and Wildlife aims to encourage people to get outside and enjoy nature while allowing wildlife to thrive.
