About the Lab – Leslie Lab: Marine Conservation Science

Community Science

heather.leslie — Sat, 16 Aug 2025 18:47:42 +0000

To learn about the Leslie Lab’s contributions to collaborative research, education and community engagement in the midcoast, please see the webpage for the Damariscotta River Estuary Community Science Program: https://tinyurl.com/DRcomsci

Audrey’s climate action work highlighted

Fri, 24 Mar 2023 15:25:24 +0000

2022 Leslie Lab intern Audrey Hufnagel was quoted in the Portland Press Herald, as part of an article highlighting the work that she and other youth climate activists are doing to pass the Pine Tree Amendment. This bill that would give voters an opportunity to add the right to a clean and healthy environment to the Maine Constitution.

Read the article

Heather on coastal resilience

Sat, 19 Nov 2022 19:57:56 +0000

Maine Campus Media covered Heather’s recent seminar as part of the Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions. Learn more

You can watch Heather’s one-hour seminar

Sarah shares shellfish research

Sat, 19 Nov 2022 19:53:59 +0000

Graduate student Sarah Risley presented to the Town of Damariscotta’s Select Board on November 2nd. She shared the work that 91�� scientists and local high school students have done to support municipal shellfish management since 2019, thanks to support from a variety of sources, including local donors to the Darling Marine Center. The team has gathered information on the diversity and abundance of harvested shellfish species, including soft shell clams, oysters, and quahogs, and designed studies in collaboration with shellfish harvesters and other local experts. You can view her presentation here.

Heather welcomes first years to DMC

Mon, 05 Sep 2022 19:13:06 +0000

/news/blog/2022/09/01/first-year-umaine-students-dive-into-marine-sciences-at-darling-marine-center/

Jen shares her PhD path

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 16:45:27 +0000

Weaving together science, story, collaboration and communications research, Jennifer Smith-Mayo is doing incredible work as part of the Maine-eDNA project. She is co-advised by Heather and Dr. Bridie McGreavy.

/news/blog/2022/03/11/jennifer-smith-mayo-rethinking-how-we-talk-about-science/

Communicating across disciplines

Fri, 04 Mar 2022 22:29:01 +0000

Leslie Lab members and other 91�� researchers from a range of disciplines — including anthropology, ecology and environmental science, genetics, journalism, marine science and Native American studies — collaborated on a recently published in the journal Frontiers in Communication. The researchers looked at communication among partners from different disciplines in developing science for coastal resilience using environmental-DNA, or eDNA.

Read more here…

Congratulations, Jess!

Fri, 03 Dec 2021 18:26:23 +0000

Jessica Reilly-Moman defended her – Climate Care: Pathways for Coastal Climate Resilience – on December 3, 2021, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Ecology and Environmental Sciences at the 91��.

Jess’ seminar is viewable on .

Jess is committed to supporting the assessment and implementation of equitable coastal climate resilience throughout the Americas. She has commenced work as the Climate Services and Assessment Fellow at the , where she looks forward to growing the Science for Climate Action Network (SCAN) and supporting sustained assessment of coastal climate adaptation.

Congratulations, Dr. Reilly-Moman!

Sarah presents community shellfish project

Tue, 02 Nov 2021 13:52:08 +0000

Graduate student Sarah Risley presented the State of the Damariscotta River Estuary report to the Damariscotta Board of Selectmen on Wednesday evening, November 3, 2021. You can watch the video recording of the presentation on the named, “Town of Damariscotta, Maine.” You can access the Damariscotta report here.

Later in November, Sarah presented in Bremen, the State of the Medomak River Estuary report. The Medomak report is available ��.��

Please cite these two reports as follows:

Britsch, M. L., S. Risley, J. S. Stoll, and H. M. Leslie. 2021. State of the Damariscotta River Estuary Report: Local knowledge of trends in the shellfish resource & human activity in the Damariscotta River Estuary. Technical report prepared for Damariscotta-Newcastle Joint Shellfish Committee, 91�� Darling Marine Center, Walpole, Maine. 32 pp.

Britsch, M., S. Risley, J. Stoll, and H. M. Leslie. 2021. State of the Medomak River Estuary. Technical report prepared for the Town of Medomak by 91�� Darling Marine Center, Walpole, Maine. 28 pp.

Damariscotta StoryMap launched

Tue, 07 Sep 2021 13:16:45 +0000

Melissa Britsch and Heather Leslie have launched a StoryMap focused on research in the Damariscotta River Estuary.

They highlight the roles diverse researchers and research stations have played in generating knowledge about the estuary, and marine ecosystems more generally.

We expect this collection will be of interest to scientists and community members alike, and help guide and support future research related to this estuary and the people who are part of it, as well as the larger Gulf of Maine ecosystem.