Walking the salt marshes of the Sprague River intertidal zone in the Morse Mountain Conservation Area, participants will learn to read marsh history by looking both deep into the stratigraphic layers of the earth and regarding it from above. We will pull a soil core that allows us to see earth’s time as a vertical element, as traces written palimpsest in shifting terrain beneath our feet, and consider sea level rise in the context of 12,500 years of our planet’s history. We’ll learn about the critical role wetlands and marsh grasses play in carbon sequestration and climate change, and consider our own body's relationship to time. 

LOCATION: Meet at the Morse Mountain Conservation Area parking lot.

REGISTRATION: Not required for this walk.

Beverly Johnson’s research interests involve using geochemical analyses to explore environmental change over a range of temporal and spatial scales. She specializes in organic and stable isotope geochemistry, and the use of stable carbon, nitrogen and sulfur isotopes in modern and ancient organic matter. Bev’s research includes investigate problems such as the history of sea level rise and coastal storms (otherwise known as paleotempestology) as recorded in salt marsh sediments, the size of carbon stocks stored in coastal sediments, methane emissions in altered and recently restored salt marshes. Bev is a member of the international scientific working group on coastal blue carbon, and studies the potential of carbon storage and sequestration in salt marshes, seagrass beds, and mangroves as a means for mitigating climate change.

Julie Poitras Santos’ site-specific practice includes public projects that include a walking component, video, and installation. The relationship between site, story and mobility fuels a wide range of research and production, including the relationship between natural histories and individual story; walking as a form of listening to site; and material agency in an age of climate change. Her work has been exhibited at the Queens Museum, NY; Bates College Museum of Art; Center for Maine Contemporary Art; Karlskrona Konsthall in Karlskrona, Sweden, Institute for Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art; the Centre for Contemporary Culture in Barcelona, Spain; Reykjanesbaer Art Museum in Iceland; and at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, among others. Poitras Santos initiated Platform Projects/Walks, in 2016.