Anne Leslie

The Art and Science of the Field Journal

By Anne Leslie on December 20, 2019

You can hold your phone in front of a fern and get an immediate plant i.d. Take your device into the forest at springtime, push a button to broadcast a cardinal’s song, and another cardinal will swoop into view. Type “turkey tail mushroom” into your browser and 21,100,000 results surface. So why sit for hours,…

We’re Counting Sheep!

By Cullen McGough on December 20, 2019

It was a perfect day to stroll over to the farm and see what Megan Phillips and Lisa Beneman are up to…

Our Favorite Books of 2019

By Cullen McGough on December 12, 2019

We recently asked Chewonki faculty and staff to share their favorite books from the past year. Here’s our collective recommended reading list for 2019:

Building Community Bridges With Natural History

By Cullen McGough on December 6, 2019

Chewonki Traveling Natural History Program educator Jessica Woodend recently made an “Owls of Maine” presentation to an enthusiastic audience at Mobius, a nonprofit organization in Damariscotta, Maine, that supports people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Along with members of the Mobius community were fourth-graders from Mr. Stephen Roy’s class at Damariscotta’s Great Salt Bay Community…

It Came From the Deep

By Anne Leslie on December 6, 2019

A couple of staff members cleaning out a closet in the Center for Environmental Education (CEE) came across a fascinating relic last week: a small-scale model of the enormous whale skeleton that graces the ceiling of Chapin Hall. “The crew from Quebec made up the model as a way to present their concept to the…

Erosion: Essays of Undoing – Learning from Terry Tempest Williams

By Cullen McGough on November 24, 2019

Six Maine Coast Semester 63 students got “the golden ticket”–a chance to hear renowned writer and environmentalist Terry Tempest Williams speak at Gulf of Maine Books, a Brunswick bookstore popular with Mainers thirsty for great writing and great writers. Semester English teacher Sarah Rebick, who uses Williams’s work in her course “Literature and the Land,”…

Onion Foundation Supports Citizen Science at Chewonki with $15,000 Grant

By Anne Leslie on November 22, 2019

Wiscasset, Maine. The Onion Foundation has awarded Chewonki a $15,000 grant to support an initiative to integrate citizen science into place-based science education at Chewonki and in nearby public schools. “We are very grateful to the Onion Foundation for this great opportunity to link Chewonki educators, local teachers, and students in field-based research,” says Keith…

Sue West, Scott Andrews Honored in Dedication Ceremony

By Cullen McGough on November 12, 2019

Saturday morning brought a dazzling blue sky to Chewonki Neck and set the stage for a much-anticipated event: the formal dedication of our new faculty housing building, formerly codenamed “Farmview 1”. Chewonki President Willard Morgan welcomed the assembled crowd of faculty and staff, alumni, and board members and invited them to gather around a shrouded…

Chewonki Craft Fair

By Cullen McGough on November 9, 2019

Join us in Chapin Hall on December 10 for the 12th annual Chewonki Craft Fair! Dozens of local artists, crafters, and Chewonki students will fill the hall with a variety of unique handcrafted items made of wood, fiber, beeswax, paper, glass, and metal, perfect for all your holiday gift needs. We will also be offering…

As the Crow Flies

By Anne Leslie on November 9, 2019

Chewonki Traveling Natural History Program educators are looking forward to giving people a greater appreciation for American crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) with the help of our two new resident crows, “A” and “Z” (proper names yet to come). They arrived at Chewonki from a Verona, Pennsylvania, wildlife rehabilitation center, where both were delivered as hatch-year birds…