by Juliet Lamont

As we move into June of 2024, Water, Earth, Birds, and Bugs (WEBB) is nearing its third-year anniversary! And as a marker of our evolution, we’ve just launched our new website, www.nhwebb.org, to make resources more comprehensive and accessible, along with listings of key events, new hands-on activities for everyone to join in on, and partner highlights. 

Over these years, we’ve focused on education and knowledge as key components in fostering collaborative change.  In May 2022, we kicked off our first year as a fully cohesive organization with a compelling talk by the renowned restoration ecologist Doug Tallamy, partnering with North Haven Conservation Partners (NHCP) and hosted by Waterman’s Community Center to highlight the importance of restoring native landscapes.  That same summer, WEBB hosted an expert from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Dr. Christian Walzer, along with his partner, wildlife veterinarian Dr. PK Robbins Walzer, for a presentation at Waterman’s Community Center.  Dr. Walzer discussed the groundbreaking, holistic One Health approach developed by WCS, which links public health with ecological integrity, biodiversity, and animal welfare.  The team was treated to a tour of Cider Hill Farm, as well as walking with NHCP members, to showcase the thriving natural environment of this island.

In 2023, we helped support the deeply moving film series around the history of indigenous tribes in Maine, presented by the North Haven Historical Society (NHHS).  And again with NHHS, we celebrated the life of Rachel Carson – arguably one of the most important environmental scientists and advocates of the last century – through both an eloquent, performance-based documentary film, as well as a book presentation around remarkable women activists of the 1960s, by author Steve Golin.  At our now-annual WEBB potluck, we started with a walking “workshop” across our host’s property, led by Vinalhaven tree expert Chuck Gadzick and NHCP’s John Stevens, to talk about how to restore diverse, climate-resilient forests across our island landscapes.  And a number of our WEBB participants have hosted workshops themselves, or presented at such popular events as the Waterman’s summer “Coffee and Compost” talks on Friday mornings.

We’ve developed an extensive list of educational resources across a variety of critical, interrelated topics, now available on our website (www.nhwebb.org): native plant restoration (and removal of invasives); indigenous tribal history of the region, as well as the nature-history connections of North Haven itself;  biodiversity and climate resilience; energy efficiency and fossil fuel alternatives; and nature-based restoration.  Our regular articles in the NH News have covered many of those topics, as well as deep dives into current issues:  birds and pesticides, bald eagles and lead poisoning, innovative entrepreneurial ventures – by our own residents! – that highlight sustainability (e.g. beekeeping, mushroom-based buoys); the history of our island trees. 

We hope that by continuing to tell the stories of nature, culture, and community, and by providing the education and resources that support and enhance sustainable change, we can continue to expand our collaborations around common purposes – with NHCP, NHHS, the NH Library, NH Sustainable Housing, the NH Community School, Southern Harbor Eldercare Services, Waterman’s Community Center, and others as they develop.  And that we all continue to learn, and through this knowledge, help to catalyze a vibrant, sustainable future among all of our partners and across the island community.  

Please join us!  We welcome participation in whatever way works for you – from active, in-person support, to simply understanding what we are trying to accomplish.  All of us are an integral and important part of this community.  Visit www.nhwebb.org for listings of meetings, highlighted partner events, in-person workshops, hands-on activities, and more, and help us strengthen this flourishing island web.