Merrymeeting Bay, draining nearly 100,000 square miles, or nearly 40 percent of Maine, is the largest staging area in the Northeast for migratory waterfowl that feed and flock as they head south. The bay is equally well-known for its bald eagle, migratory fish and rare plant populations. Watching over this special tidal riverine inland delta 20 miles upriver from the Atlantic is Friends of Merrymeeting Bay (FOMB), a volunteer-based nonprofit using research, advocacy, education and land conservation to preserve, protect and improve, as FOMB's mission states, the unique ecosystems of Merrymeeting Bay.

First-of-a-kind research
With only one staff member and a cadre of more than 125 active volunteers putting in 3,500 hours per year (from a membership of 450), the Friends have helped protect over 1,300 acres of valuable wildlife habitat in the area. They have conducted first-of-a-kind research projects in Maine using caged, freshwater mussels to monitor and detect river contaminants; aerial photography and GIS (geographic information system) technology to look at land use and vegetation over time; and sophisticated homemade drifters to study circulation patterns in the estuary system.

Lately, FOMB advocacy work has focused on toxins, development pressures, upgrading water quality and gaining safe and effective migratory fish passage through and around hydroelectric dams. The group was recently successful in blending science and advocacy to prevent a proposed tidal energy project that would have severely restricted the only access to the bay and river system for huge migratory fish populations. Data from FOMB's active volunteer water-monitoring network supported prior river classification upgrade efforts, and a 2005 Endangered Species Act petition filed by FOMB and two other local parties recently resulted in the expansion of endangered species protection to Atlantic salmon on three of Maine's largest rivers: the Kennebec, Androscoggin and Penobscot. Local volunteers make a difference!

Mud, fun and a sense of place
The biannual FOMB Bay Day is a highly choreographed but always fluid effort, bringing together more than 40 FOMB volunteers and as many as 200 "no child left inside" energetic fourth-graders in just one day. Add plenty of mud, stir, and let the fun and learning begin!

Whether squishing through tidal fish nursery habitat on a plant walk, creating gyotaku fish prints, gathering in a beach seine net, making a mud model of the bay, or unearthing 300-year-old artifacts, by the end of the day, names like mummichog, creamware, diadromous, banded killifish, sturgeon, Abagadasset and three-spined stickleback are rolling off kids' tongues, waiting to enlighten parents at home. In today's geographically challenged society, Bay Day not only provides hands-on education, exercise and fun, but by teaching kids about Merrymeeting Bay's six rivers and the critters living in and around them, it also conveys a critical sense of place.

And what an extraordinarily special place it is.
When all student hands go up to volunteer to drag a dead duck and lay a scent trail in a "dogs for conservation" session, when kids clamor to carry the 50-foot rolled-up beach seine through the woods to a location with more water, when a young lady refuses to stop for lunch because she wants to "stay and become an archaeologist," FOMB volunteers know they are making an impact, fulfilling a need, and doing the right thing in the right place.