Welcome to the Maine Midden Minders
A Citizens-Science Project to Document and Monitor Erosion of Maine’s Shell Middens
Maine’s coastal heritage spans thousands of years, and begins with the indigenous hunters/gatherers/fishers who relied on the rich resources of the region’s ocean, coastline, marshes, and adjacent forests. The record of their occupation and the environment in which they lived is preserved in shell middens. However, these valuable archives are disappearing as sea-level rise and changing weather patterns impact the Maine coast.
The Maine Midden Minders seek to engage local citizens individually and as part of conservation organizations to monitor and document change at shell middens along the coast, and to preserve shell midden information in a database to be used by researchers and cultural resource managers.
