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WCC News

Students Learn How Nature & Conservation Efforts Can Be Fun

Charlie Bell & Sam Onion

Each year the Town of Wells, through its Conservation Commission, provides scholarships for two students from the Junior High to spend a week at the University of Maine 4-H Camp & Learning Center at Bryant Pond, Maine.

This past August, the Conservation Commission, with the help of middle school science teacher Bruce Fearon, chose Sam Onion and Charlie Bell, who learned about natural history, recycling, sustainable forest management, along with having a lot of fun.

The Conservation Commission believes this program will deepen the students appreciation for the outdoors through hiking, boating, and swimming as they explore the natural world around them. The students learn to use water quality testing equipment as they monitor Lake Christopher's watershed, adding their results to the state and national databases. The students also have the chance to become certified in Maine State Boating Safety course. They learn team-building skills in discovering the forest and the lake and the ropes course, and also in learning the art of gardening.

The two students expressed their appreciation in letters to the Wells Board of Selectmen. Sam Onion wrote that he learned how to identify rocks and how to compost kitchen waste, and he learned a lot more about canoeing: "how to do the J stroke, the C stroke, the draw, and the pry." Charlie Bell wrote that "a cool part of camp was climbing up to the top of the mountain" and enjoying the views of the managed forest beneath.

For over 50 years the University of Maine 4-H Camp & Learning Center at Bryant Pond (formerly the Maine Conservation School) has strengthened children's relationship to the natural world with a combination of inspired outdoor fun, practical woods-wise skills, and "hands-on" conservation education. Helping young people learn to take care of our natural world and themselves when they are in it are our most important goals.

Along with helping young people learn about conservation, the Wells Conservation Commission has for more than thirty years helped the Town identify and acquire public land owned by the Townspeople. These Conservation Lands provide home to wildlife, and provide Townspeople with green public space for hiking and birding and fishing and hunting. Currently the Town is poised to acquire two important parcels of land. One is the old Tilton homestead near Rt. 109, where the Merriland River flows. The other lies in western Wells where Perkins Brook flows, the former proposed site of Granite State's mammoth gas tank — an idea that has been abandoned.

The Commission also distributes kitchen compost units, for turning kitchen scraps into garden fertilizer, and maintains trails for hiking the Town's extensive Conservation Lands.

Volunteer With the WCC

WCC is always looking for a few good volunteers to help with a variety of tasks. If you're interested in becoming a volunteer, come visit our Volunteering page.

Questions? Please don't hesitate to contact us.