{"id":134333,"date":"2020-06-19T11:51:42","date_gmt":"2020-06-19T15:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=134333"},"modified":"2021-11-16T08:24:25","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T13:24:25","slug":"from-a-distance-the-meandering-sprague-river-at-bates-morse-mountain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2020\/06\/19\/from-a-distance-the-meandering-sprague-river-at-bates-morse-mountain\/","title":{"rendered":"From a Distance: The meandering Sprague River at Bates\u2013Morse Mountain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This photo shows part of the Sprague River and salt marsh within the coastal Bates\u2013Morse Mountain Conservation Area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fun facts are courtesy of Whitehouse Professor of Geology Dyk Eusden \u201980 and Professor of Geology Beverly Johnson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Aerial
The Sprague River and marsh within the Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area are seen on June 9, 2019. (Brittney Lohmiller for Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

1. Pooling Resources<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Pools are natural features of the marsh and provide habitat for wildlife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Water Way<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Spring floods cover the marsh, allowing marine life to move between pools and tidal channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Long and Winding<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

These winding channels are naturally occurring \u201cmeanders\u201d and help drain the marsh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Last Ditch<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

These straight ditches were designed to drain pools and reduce standing water. People have been ditching marshes for centuries, initially to harvest the marsh grasses for hay and then more recently, in the 1970s, to control mosquitos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Plugging Along<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The ditches eliminated vital habitats, prompting repair efforts with earthen \u201cditch plugs\u201d in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Tiding Over<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

A failed restoration attempt with a too-effective ditch plug resulted in this area being cut off from beneficial tides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. Rock of Ages<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Morse Mountain granite is thought to be Paleozoic in origin \u2014 up to 350 million years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Granite cut from Maine quarries is found in buildings and structures around the country, including the Washington Monument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. Destination: Ocean<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The natural channel of the 2.5-mile Sprague River winds through the marsh to the Atlantic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. Keeping in Dune<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

A large and mostly hidden dune field, known as parabolic dune field for its shape, runs parallel to and set back from the beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the image below, one of the parabolic fields is at the lower center, nestled within the darker green bushes and trees:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Aerial
At far upper right is the Kennebec River. At top center is Morse Mountain. At bottom right is Seawall Beach, which is separated from Popham Beach State Park by the Morse River (visible below the Kennebec at the far right. (Brittney Lohmiller for Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Check out this aerial photo of Bates\u2013Morse Mountain Conservation Area and fun facts from Bates geologists Bev Johnson and Dyk Eusden ’80.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":134361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,217],"tags":[10857,12263],"class_list":["post-134333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-science-technology","tag-bates-morse-mountain-conservation-area","tag-from-a-distance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134333"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134390,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134333\/revisions\/134390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}