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| File photo/Natalie De La Garza Open for tours this Saturday will be the weapons storage area of the former Loring Air Force Base. |
By Natalie De La Garza
Staff Writer
LIMESTONE — All are welcome to a celebration this weekend at the Aroostook National Wildlife Refuge with the theme, “From Bombs to Biodiversity.”
This Saturday’s events, like the popular tours of the weapons storage areas of the former Loring Air Force Base, are organized by the Friends of the Aroostook National Wildlife Refuge, held in conjunction with National Wildlife Refuge Week.
President of the Friends group, Betty Rinehart, has been volunteering at the refuge for 16 years and is still just as energetic about the site as she was over a decade ago.
“It’s such a wonderful place and to see what’s happening now that the Air Force has left,” she commented. “People don’t realize the diversity that’s out there — you really have to come and see it for yourself.”
The day lasts from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m., but the community doesn’t have to wait until the monthly Second Saturday event to come visit the refuge.
Open during regularly scheduled seasonal times from 1-4 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Saturday, the Refuge has trails and activities accommodating a half-hour jaunt or a nature-filled morning — just don’t venture off the trails.
“We’ve gotten backpacks and filled them with supplies so that families can check them out and use them to explore the refuge,” Rinehart explained. The backpacks, funded through a Maine Community Foundation grant, contain binoculars, tweezers, a butterfly net, grease pencils and even a scavanger hunt list filled with things to find along a nature walk. “Check out the backpack and walk the Don Lima Trail or other paths to check out what the refuge has to offer,” Rinehart added.
While this month’s Second Saturday series event features a celebration of the refuge, occasionally the Friends group offers volunteering opportunities for folks willing to lend a hand to spruce up the site.
The group’s been very creative when it comes to bringing nature back to the former Air Force Base. Fences that were formerly used to guard the weapons storage area now serve as a place to hang bluebird boxes, and even the bunkers that once housed nuclear components for bombs have served as bat habitat.
Additional information can be found by visiting the Friends of the Aroostook National Wildlife Refuge on Facebook.
