The Town's Comprehensive Planning Committee needs your help in identifying what wildlife lives on the various islands of the Town. As a town made up of unconnected islands, not all the animals that live in this area on the mainland have made it out here. And some may have made it to one island but not to others. Because of this unique situation, the Critical Natural Resources subcommittee thought it would be useful to include in the Plan an inventory of what animals we do have and where they occur. This will help us particularly in considering what areas of the island are important animal habitat. But the two of us on the subcommittee haven't enough expertise to do this by ourselves. That is why we are asking everyone's help.
We have designed a very simple (but not very short) survey that simply lists the animals that occur in Southern Maine and asks whether you think each one occurs on Chebeague or the other islands. Anyone can fill it out, and you can do it as a family or with friends. The major thing we want is accuracy. If you know about mammals, but don't know anything about snakes, just fill out the section on what you know. If you don't know whether something occurs on Chebeague, don't hesitate to say so. Having seen or heard an animal, or having seen its tracks are the best but not the only tests. We are hoping that out there, among all of you year-round and summer residents, there are people who do know about snakes or amphibians as well as deer and raccoons.
We encourage people to do the survey on-line because the results are tabulated by the survey website, which saves us a lot of time. But we don't want to discourage people from doing it just because they don't bother with the internet, so paper copies are also available at the Library and at the Town Office.
To get to the survey on-line, go to:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=RGm1vFQVr5bi_2f_2fGiOFQ7ZA_3d_3d
We might do another survey this winter on birds. Let us know if you would be interested in that.
Thank you for your help.
Mabel Doughty and Beth Howe
Chebeague Comprehensive Plan subcommittee on Critical Natural Resources