Help us continue to make natural history education tools and archive data for future generations
Please become an MNHO member, renew your membership, or give an additional gift by December 15th to help ensure that local, independent natural science research remains strong in Maine.
Like many nonprofits, MNHO is facing shifting grant support because of cuts to federal funding. That’s why your membership is so important. Membership dollars provide the stable foundation that allows us to plan longer-term projects, pursue important research that would otherwise go unfunded, and keep the online tools and resources that we build free and accessible.
With your help, we can:
- Continue to publish free visual mini-guides that make Maine’s plants, animals, and seaweeds easier to identify.
- Continue to produce Nature Notes: A Maine Naturalist Afield, our weekly radio program on WERU Community Radio, where we interview researchers and explore Maine’s fascinating species and habitats.
- Maintain free, interactive online maps and databases, including the Maine Island Plants Map and Maine Seaweed Map.
- Continue to publish The Observer, our quarterly field journal.
- Launch a permanent online archive of our 20+ years of survey data, ensuring it can be freely accessed by the public and preserved for future generations of biologists.
Your $10 or more membership or additional gift makes all this possible. With your membership, you join a community of people who care deeply about Maine’s natural world. Your membership is the bedrock that allows us to plan ambitious projects, preserve decades of data, and ensure Maine’s natural history is not lost to future generations.
One of MNHO’s primary goals is to preserve our decades of research for future generations of biologists. To help ensure our data’s accessibility and longevity, MNHO is working to archive 20+ years of survey data on plants, birds, and seaweeds into a permanent open-access online repository where they will be freely available to the public.
Stay tuned for updates!
Free Visual Mini-guides
MNHO has published 45 free mini guides to learn how to easily tell apart commonly confused Maine species. This ever-growing library of visual guides includes both common species, such as Purple Finch and House Finch, and lesser-known ones, such as Straggly Bush Seaweed and the invasive Siphoned Japan Seaweed. These guides are available on Facebook, Instagram, and as downloadable PDFs on our website where they have been downloaded hundreds of times.
Nature Notes Radio Segment
A 5-minute, spoken-word radio program produced by MNHO staff and aired every Sunday morning on WERU Community Radio (89.9 FM). It explores natural history topics from the perspective of Maine field biologists and naturalists. All 47 episodes (and counting) can be streamed anytime on the MNHO website.
Observer field journal
A quarterly, online field journal where MNHO members can learn about the natural history research being conducted across the state and publish natural history observations.
Maine Island Plants Map
This online interactive map compiles all currently available vascular plant distribution data for 278 coastal islands, including 30 years of island plant surveys conducted by MNHO ecologists.
Maine Seaweed Map
In this online interactive map, you can explore 150 years of Maine seaweed distribution data compiled from reports, specimens, and ongoing surveys for the Seaweeds of Maine field guide project.
Maine Seaweed Database
In this online database, you can explore 150 years of Maine seaweed distribution data compiled from reports, specimens, and ongoing surveys for the Seaweeds of Maine field guide project.
Please become an MNHO member, renew your membership, or give an additional gift today to help ensure that local, independent natural science research remains strong in Maine!
If you prefer, you can also mail a check to:
Maine Natural History Observatory, 317 Guzzle Rd, Gouldsboro, ME 04607.
(Please include your email address if possible)