Somes-Meynell Wildlife Sanctuary offers a variety of public programs, field trips, and trainings focused on local science projects, wildlife & natural history, and local/regional cultural history topics. The Sanctuary’s programs are intended to inform fellow citizens and connect them when possible to further opportunities to learn, become conservation stewards, and engage in meaningful projects.

2025 Evening Programs and Field Trips

We will have programs on the Somesville river herring migration, American eel ecology and local migration, the 2025 loon breeding season, and several others. If you have ideas of topics and speakers related to the natural history and ecology of our area you would like to share please email Director Billy Helprin at somesmeynell@gmail.com. Check back for updates here or on the Sanctuary Facebook Page for specific week postings or contact the Sanctuary at somesmeynell@gmail.com to receive email updates with the latest details. Some of our field trips will require registration to make sure we stay within our optimum field trip size and capacity of our indoor spaces and we’ll let you know which ones have participant caps.

Forest Health and Insect Pest Update, Sunday afternoon, March 16th, 3:00-4:30, at the parish house of the Somesville Union Meeting House church. 

Meet us at the church parish house in Somesville on Sunday the 16th at 3:00pm for an update on the latest forest health conditions, distribution of forest insect pests locally & statewide, and possible treatment options. This will be a great opportunity for participants to share what they are seeing and to learn from our panel including Maine Forest Service Entomologist Colleen Teerling, Acadia National Park’s Biologist & Vegetation Program Manager Jesse Wheeler, Land & Garden Preserve’s Director of Natural Lands Tate Bushell, and local arborists. Parking may be tight so carpool if possible and spots will likely be available at the theater across from the fire station, with the new sidewalk connecting from there to the church. Please join us and spread the word! 

 

Mt. Desert Island/Acadia National Park Amphibian Project Update, Saturday March 22nd from 4:00-5:15, at the parish house in Somesville.

Anyone who would like to know more about amphibians on Mt. Desert Island and in Acadia National Park, please join us for a project update by University of Maine graduate student Marisa Monroe on first year results of the collaborative project with the Park and volunteer amphibian surveyors. The Sanctuary is hosting this program to help with volunteer observer recruitment, as well as the opportunity to learn more about this important group of animals.

Project goals include building a large enough sample size to map and predict when and where crossings occur in the Park, to monitor throughout the year in an effort to encounter more species and out-migrating juvenile frogs and salamanders. Distribution of American toads on MDI is also of interest.

This talk will cover the different amphibian species found on Mt. Desert Island, how their migrations differ, methods for reducing mortality, and what we hope to discover as the project progresses. It would be great to hear from attendees what local amphibian movements they have observed over the years. No commitment to the citizen science project is expected for attendees of the presentation.

Parking at the church may be tight, additional spots available at the MDI Historical Society corner lot by the mill pond and at the repertory theater across from the Somesville fire station. 

American Eel Ecology and Elver Fishing Presentation, on the Somesville Library lawn, Wednesday April 23rd, 1:00-2:00pm.

Curious about the nets that line the upper cove in Somesville each early spring? Join us on the Somesville Library lawn by the mill pond to learn about the amazing life history of American eels and the fishery that focuses on harvesting a small number of tiny, young eels migrating towards streams along our coast to spend most of their adult lives in freshwater. Our featured speaker will be Sanctuary Field Assistant and elver fisherman Rusty Taylor, who will talk about fishing techniques, industry regulations, and the history of the fishery. Our daily timing is tied to match approximate low tide so we can see the nets and the morphology of the cove bottom.

Somesville Fish Ladders Birding and Fish Migration Tour for Downeast Audubon, Saturday May 17th, 9:00-11:00; rain date Sunday. Sign up for this trip will be via Downeast Audubon (http://www.downeastaudubon.org/p/programs-events.html)

Join Sanctuary staff in watching the action around the Somes Mill Pond, site of the original saw mill on the island, and a real wildlife spectacle during the annual alewife (river herring) migration. The approximately ten inch long fish return each year to the head of Somes Sound on their way to spawn in Somes and Long Ponds. This migration and spawning effort is a real conservation success story with numbers rising from a few hundred returning alewife in 2005 to tens of thousands in more recent years thanks to restoration work on the fish passage ways coordinated by the Somes-Meynell Wildlife Sanctuary and many partners. The pulse of fish attracts all kinds of predators including bald eagles, osprey, cormorants, gulls, and seals engaged in the process of trying to take advantage of their presence. From the mill pond we’ll walk upstream into beautiful Brookside Cemetery with many large trees and a forested edge adjacent to the outflow of Somes Pond. We should find numerous warblers, vireos, and other songbirds along our route.

 

Alewife Population Dynamics in the Somes Pond – Long Pond Watershed, early to mid-July date to be determined.

Sanctuary 2025 Program Assistant (and 2024’s Intern) Nathaniel Austin will present alewife migration data and discuss changes observed within each year’s run and overall trends.

Loon Walks at Little Long Pond with the Land & Garden Preserve , June 11th, July 2nd, August 6th.  As we get closer to summer, sign up at: https://www.gardenpreserve.org/events-rentals 

Join Sanctuary and Land & Garden Staff for a walk along the eastern shore of Little Long Pond and the beach at Bracy Cove to see how the resident loon pair is doing. Hopefully, they will have one or two chicks this year, after a year when they did not hatch any in 2024. We will talk about loon behavior, the challenges and dynamics of this particular territory, and how loons are doing around MDI as the breeding and chick rearing season progresses. There are always lots of other birds and plants to observe along the way.

Loon Appreciation Day at the Sanctuary, afternoon of Saturday July 26th.

We’ll meet at Sanctuary headquarters for multiple activities including a loon biology overview, 2025 breeding success updates, sharing of observations by volunteers, viewing of a short film by Tim Laman featuring the loons of Somes Pond and other local lakes, viewing of loons from the deck on the south shore of Somes Pond, and a late afternoon paddle on Somes Pond.

2024 Evening Programs and special field trips
2023 Evening Programs and special field trips
2019 Spring & Summer Public Programs (Pre-pandemic era!)
2018 Late Summer & Fall Public Programs