TIMES RECORD • August 26, 2021
On a swampy August day, I had the delightful experience of helping a group of kids build a sandcastle. We built it above the tide line and created motes and walls and a system of drainage to hold back the incoming tide. All of this was to protect the precious “treasury” — a collection of small sand dollars that were carefully placed in the interior of the castle. Sand dollars are part of the echinoderm (spiny skinned) family that also includes urchins and sea stars along with the odd-man-out — sea cucumbers. Sand dollars are just one of the myriad species found along our coast. They, among many others, are included in a recent terrific pocket field guide put out by the Harpswell Heritage Land Trust in collaboration with the Casco Bay Estuary Partnership. ~ Susan Olcott