Happy Sunday! The Kennebunk Plains is the largest remaining sand-grasslands habitat in New England. The last of the glaciers left behind a natural, open plain without forest cover. It supports several rare and endangered species of animals and plants, but, in reality it is the habitat itself that is threatened. The area around it is rapidly being built up…transforming from rural to suburban…with housing developments nibbling at the edges. It is a good thing that its unique value was recognized early enough to save it. The main body of land was purchased by the Nature Conservancy, and with addition parcels added by the local Conservation Land Trusts, it is now jointly managed by the NC and the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. You can read more about the plains in the Kennebunk Plains and Wells Barrens Focus Area (pdf). 

Yesterday, after an interesting few hours with the dragonflies at Emmons Preserve (see An Afternoon Amble Among the Odonata and Insects), I drove out to the Plains chasing big skies. It is one of the few places in Southern Maine away from the coast with an unobstructed view. This is blueberry season and my wife had been to the Plains picking berries earlier in the week (most locals know the area as the Blueberry Plains, and gathering of wild blueberries is allowed there during August…at one time, indeed, they were commercially harvested), but she failed to mention that the Blazing Star is in bloom. Northern Blazing Star is one of the endangered plants that gives the Plains conservation status, and one of the reasons the Nature Conservancy was interested enough to invest in the land. A Thistle-like flower that grows on tall stalks, it is especially abundant (as abundant as it gets in its endangered state) along the sand tracks that run through the Plains.

So, of course, I had ideal subjects to fill the foreground of my big sky shots. The leading image here is a low angle shot, using the flip out LCD on the Coolpix, to frame a fairly dense stand of Blazing Star against some towering clouds.

And this is the flower itself…

I am always thankful (and never more so than on Sunday) for the foresight of the people of the Nature Conservancy, Land Trusts, and State and Federal agencies that works together, when it works at all, to save a place like the Kennebunk Plains. A place like the Kennebunk Plains should speak to us of the wonder of creation…it should be a place we treasure…and where we can see and experience God in way that is just as powerful as any experience of worship. The Blazing Star of the Kennebunk Plains should inspire us…should move us…should motivate us to do what we can to make sure it is still there to delight another generation.

Nikon Coolpix P500. 1) 32mm equivalent field of view. f5.0 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 160. Program with Active D-Lighting. 2) 32mm equivalent (Close Up mode). f3.7 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 160. 3) 810mm equivalent (Close Up mode). f5.7 @ 1/640th @ ISO 160.

Processed in Lightroom for Clarity, intensity, and Sharpness.

{//////}