WESTBROOK - Everyone needs a few friends-even the town's offshore islands, especially after the damage wrought by Superstorm Sandy.

Superstorm Sandy last fall-and Storm Irene the year before-left the town's uninhabited islands-Salt, Duck, and Menunketesuck-badly damaged. Fencing and signage installed to protect bird nesting areas was lost, upended, or washed away by waves and wind. Beach areas where wading birds feed and some nest were badly eroded.

But the birds don't know that and, already, the migrating birds have begun to return. Will the habitat and nesting areas they find now support them in the nesting seasons?

Tom ODell wants to make sure the answer to that question is "Yes." That's why he's trying to organize a group of volunteers as the Friends of Westbrook Islands.

As chairman of the town's Conservation Commission, he has worked with Stewart McKinney National Wildlife Refuge Manager Rick Potvin and representatives of the state's Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), which owns one of the islands, to develop a plan for coordinated management of the three islands. The Friends of Westbrook Islands concept grew out of this informal island management arrangement.

Three entities own and are responsible for managing the three Westbrook offshore islands: DEEP for Duck Island, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for Menunketesuck Island, and the town's Conservation Commission for Salt Island.

On May 7 ODell and Potvin co-hosted the first Friends of Westbrook Islands organizational meeting at the Wildlife Refuge Headquarters in Westbrook. The goal of the group will be to provide volunteers willing to help protect the islands' nesting habitats, in coordination with the islands' respective owners.

"The three Westbrook islands are very important to birdlife and are designated as part of the Audubon Society's Important Bird Areas [IBAs]," said Rick Potvin. "On Duck Island, there's long-legged waders that are birds of concern for the state. Also, common terns use the area for nesting and oyster-catchers. Roseate terns fish on the shoals of the three islands."

A coastal bird survey will be conducted from June 3 to 14 to assess the impact of last fall's storms and the damage to habitat on the shore bird populations.

As Potvin described his and ODell's vision for the group, it would be to form an independent entity that would allow conservation and recreation uses of the islands to go hand in hand.

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For Outer Islands, a Little Help from Friends