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Restoration and Exploration Week at MDIBL - 07.04.2012

 Prepping grids
Teachers Ted Taylor and Jen Page and their students Mary Bourque, Helen Zhang, Clarissa Hillman, and Patrick Lee participated in a week-long “Restoration and Exploration Week” at MDI Biological Laboratory (MDIBL) June 25th-29th, 2012 as part of an EPA and COSEE-OS funded effort to bring inland schools to the coast and engage them in monitoring and stewardship activities. This is the second year that Bangor has participated in the program. The teachers and students have established their own study site near Thomas Island in Frenchman Bay and intend to make a long-term commitment to the restoration of eelgrass habitat in this area.

Ted Taylor has B.S. and M.S. degrees in geology and Jen Page has a Ph.D. in marine biology. Their combined backgrounds and expertise dovetails well with the experience of MDIBL researchers and student interns working on strategies to restore eelgrass in upper Frenchman Bay.

This year, the Bangor team tackled questions related to marine sediment composition and benthic organisms in established and proposed eelgrass restoration areas, while the MDIBL team worked on questions related to maximizing eelgrass growth. The teams came together to harvest and transplant eelgrass, then devoted an afternoon to sharing research findings and brainstorming next steps. According to Jane Disney, director of the Community Environmental Health Laboratory at MDI Biological Laboratory, “This unique collaboration between MDI Biological Laboratory and Bangor High School is providing an opportunity for students to move from the periphery to the center of an important habitat restoration effort in Frenchman Bay. Everyone is gaining from each other’s experience, insight, and perspective.”

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