- Up next on "Borealis," (light upbeat music) it's an amazing and inspirational moment when Special Surfers take over the break at Gooch's Beach in Kennebunk.

(crowd cheering) We catch up with a grassroots group working to turn Greenville into a mountain biking mecca.

Recent discoveries at the Bigelow Lab show how teeny phytoplankton influence the planet's climate.

And we check in with adventurer and advocate Enock Glidden on one of his favorite days of the year.

Stay with us.

- [Announcer] Production support for "Borealis" is provided by- - [Announcer] The Nature Conservancy in Maine, joining science, action, and innovative partners to help connect communities and address the global climate crisis.

From our forest to our rivers to the Gulf of Maine, learn more at nature.org/joinmaine.

- [Announcer] At Poland Spring, we've called Maine homes since 1845 and are proud to be part of the community over the past two decades, investing more than $12 million in the place that we call home.

Poland Spring, 100% natural spring water - [Announcer] And by viewers like you, thank you.

- You guys ready to hike?

("Wilderness" by Oshima Brothers) ♪ I wanna get lost in the wilderness with you, darling ♪ ♪ I wanna get lost in the rivers and the roots ♪ Yay!

(people cheering) ♪ Get you up on the mountainside ♪ ♪ And we can just climb ♪ Hello, I'm Aislinn Sarnacki.

Welcome to "Borealis."

Now that it's fall, it's pretty quiet here at Popham Beach but in the summer, this is a pretty busy place.

In fact, it is the busiest state park beach in Maine.

And if the waves are breaking just right, you're apt to find surfers here year round.

Another popular surf spot in Maine is Gooch's Beach in Kennebunk where every summer, something magical happens.

Carol Bousquet takes us there.

(upbeat electric guitar) - [Carol] It's early and the Special Surfers crew is already hard at work on Gooch's Beach in Kennebunk.

They unload three trailers full of surfboards, wetsuits, and other gear.

There are nearly 100 surfboards here, some with special chair mounts.

In a few hours, the setup covers a large span of the beach, ready for hundreds of volunteers to arrive at 2:00 PM, (crowd chattering) followed by close to 200 Special Surfers at four.

- Hey sir, how are you?

- [Carol] Among them, 17-year-old Hunter Van Brocklin of Alfred who's been coming for 10 years.

Hunter has cerebral palsy and his therapy dog, Gelato, helps him navigate the sand while he waits for his turn.

- Come on out, Hunter, you ready?

(Hunter indistinct) I can respect that, and can I get, Hunter, you're yellow, right?

- How you doing?

- Hey.

- Yep.

- The waves are fantastic right now, really (indistinct) today.

- Hunter is a seasoned favorite, like- - I see.

- Yeah.

- It can be exhilarating, yeah.

Depends on the waves, looks like we have much better waves out there today than in June.

(waves crashing) (people chattering) - [Carol] Gelato helps Hunter get to the ocean's edge where volunteers John, Nicole, and Kylie take over, helping him get settled on the board, towed out into the surf, and launched on a wave.

Hunter is considered an extra-care rider who needs a little more hands-on help.

- Nice one!

That was awesome.

- Longtime surf shop owner and instructor Nanci Boutet started Special Surfers in 2003 when a friend asked her to take three children with autism out surfing.

She never dreamed that 20 years later, Special Surfers would grow to mean so much to so many people.

- I had no idea that it would ever turn into this.

It's like a tsunami, but I don't want it to stop because I know how much joy it brings to these kids in a life that is so full of restrictions and schedules and what they can and can't do And when they get here, they can do whatever they want.

- [Carol] Like 27-year-old Levy Silver (crowd cheering) He has autism and has been coming to Special Surfers from New Hampshire for 10 years.

Levy says it was hard to learn how to surf but he kept trying until he could stand on the board.

Will you keep doing this forever?

- Yeah, keep doing this forever.

I love it.

- [Carol] Levy's mother, Donna, says that confidence on the surfboard has inspired him to try skiing and other sports through the Special Olympics.

And she says it also brought Levy out of his shell so he could make friends that he never had before.

- And that wasn't in our vocabulary before.

We knew people, we had acquaintances, we had relatives, but we didn't have friends, and now we have friends.

So that's a big accomplishment for someone with autism.

- Then we'll bring the other one over.

- [Carol] Down the beach, the Special Surfers Special Ops team is almost ready.

They work with children with significant mobility challenges to help them ride on surfboards mounted with chairs and pontoons on each side to keep them stable.

Volunteer Holly St. Onge, a pediatric occupational therapist by day, has led the Special Ops team since 2014.

She is thrilled by how the program has grown.

No one, regardless of their age, is turned away.

- One of the most amazing things has been in the last several years the influx of adult participants that we've had, whether it's veterans who are amputees, adults with developmental disabilities, you name it.

Anyone of any age, any disability, gets to come and surf and we will figure out a way to get you on a board and in the water regardless of your disability.

(crowd cheering) - Nice, Sidney!

- [Carol] It's late afternoon and the gauntlets are running.

Dozens of volunteers line up and create lanes for children on mounted boards to pass through.

They stay close so the children riding on them travel safely to shore without flipping over.

- Beautiful!

- [Carol] Seeing Special Surfers have fun is what brings volunteers Kathleen McLaughlin and Bao Luong, University of New England Medical students, back to help time after time.

- It's super fun, I know that people look forward to it every single year.

Getting onto a surfboard can be a little tough, depending on your abilities.

And to see people get so excited to be in the water I think is a really exciting way to celebrate the summer.

- They get a chance to try something that they normally wouldn't be able to.

For them to have that opportunity to come out here and then to have a group of wonderful volunteer people to be able to help out and give 'em a good time.

- [Carol] The Special Surfers are still going strong as evening approaches, many of them hanging on to the last minute to keep surfing.

For them, it's an experience that oftentimes lets them forget their challenges for a few hours of summer fun and make memories that will last a lifetime.

For "Borealis," I'm Carol Bousquet.

- [Speaker] Yes, Aiden, all right!

- For the next story, we head north, 150 miles to Greenville where a group of mountain biking enthusiasts are working hard to put their region on the map as a trail-riding destination.

We caught up with Moosehead Outdoor Alliance as they were cutting new trails.

(upbeat music) (wheels rustling) Mountain biking, it's a thrilling sport, flying through the woods on two wheels, catapulting over rocks, and swerving around trees.

And in recent years, more and more people are giving it a try.

Here in the Moosehead region, a grassroots group is building an extensive trail system for this growing sport.

The hope is that it will entice new visitors to the region.

- At Destination Moosehead, our chamber, the second most requested activity is where can you bike.

- [Aislinn] Chuck Wagenheim is the president of Moosehead Outdoor Alliance, a nonprofit organization that's been working for years to develop top quality mountain biking trails in and around Greenville.

The idea began as a discussion between two friends.

- Seven years ago, a good friend of mine who's the vice president of Moosehead Outdoor Alliance, Henry Gilbert, wanted to take me onto some, what he called mountain bike trails in the area.

We took a ride and I'd say 80% of it was on posted land and private land, and I said, "Henry, these are your private trails.

"Nobody else can use 'em."

He said, "Yeah, that's exactly right."

I said, "Well, we need some public trails "that everybody can use."

- [Aislinn] The project has three phases.

In 2022, they built between three and four miles of beginner trails near Gravel Pit Pond.

That network is called Moosehead Junction Trails and is already open for riding.

Phase two of the project began this summer.

Work crews focused on the south side of Little Moose Mountain, cutting some more challenging trails.

- Right now we're working on the Black Diamond Downhill.

The first half of it is really like feature-driven.

There's a lot of berms, drops off like big rocks.

It has a little bit of everything.

The terrain that we're in is just so good.

The trail that we're laying down, I'm super excited about.

- [Aislinn] The trails are all being built on state-owned land.

- It's a really beautiful site.

But that being said, there's a lot of rocks here.

A lot of big, big slabs of rock and it's not the easiest to get an excavator up through a lot of these spots, but we've made our way through.

Yeah, it's hard work for sure.

- [Aislinn] Using machinery rather than just hand tools allows the crews to build more sustainable trails that resist erosion.

- So with a machine-built trail, it's definitely gonna be a lot more sustainable because you can dig out all the organic materials and add the mineral materials as far as gravel, sand, loam, and then you can create bigger drainages.

You can move bigger rocks.

You can create better up slope and down slope to help channel the water off of the tread of the trail to make it more sustainable.

- [Aislinn] Phase three will be to create trails on the north side of the mountain.

The end goal is to build 25 miles of trails on and around Little Moose Mountain, which, counting old trails, would create a playground of about 35 miles of state-of-the-art trails, constructed specifically for mountain biking.

(wheels rustling) - Now Maine has gotten kind of on the map as a real destination mountain bike area.

Bethel has a great trail system, Carrabassett Valley, Millinocket, Topsham's got a pump track, Portland's got a ton, Gorham's got a great trail system.

- [Aislinn] Rodney Folsom, an avid mountain biker who grew up in the Moosehead region, moved back with his family in 2020 and is excited about what the trails will mean to local families.

- We think it's gonna be a big benefit to get the youth and the community riding.

We'd like to incorporate our trails with the school system, maybe eventually get some kind of gear exchange where local kids can get a bike to use for the season and change it out, and then get their parents involved as well.

- [Aislinn] For Folsom, the activity brings him back to when he was a boy, biking the gravel roads of Beaver Cove.

- I went for a ride in the rain about a couple weeks ago and I was doubting going, and it was just pouring rain five minutes into my ride.

But I kept riding and it just felt, it's just you feel like a kid, it's just so fun.

- [Aislinn] Like many outdoor activities, mountain biking can be a lifelong passion.

- I have a 10-year-old granddaughter who's been riding mountain bikes for three, four years and we ride together all the time.

So it's a great activity between multi-generational ages.

- [Aislinn] Considered a niche sport, mountain biking has grown dramatically in recent years.

According to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association, nearly nine million people in the US took a bike off road in 2022, a jump from about seven million in 2007.

With the creation of more trails, especially easy, smooth trails, the sport has become more accessible.

In addition, there are now more opportunities to rent bikes for people who wanna give it a try before investing in any equipment.

- I just think it appeals to people who want to be outdoors in an activity that you can take at your own pace.

You don't have to go, everybody's not gonna jump off rocks and go over, go fast around berms, but if you want that, we're gonna have it.

- [Aislinn] Moosehead Outdoor Alliance isn't the only group working to improve biking in the area.

The town of Greenville and the Appalachian Mountain Club are too.

- We see the future very, very bright here.

And our job right from the start was to build a destination mountain bike community here and we want people to come up and enjoy it.

(wheels rustling) - The New England Mountain Biking Association, or NEMBA, has a cool interactive map on its website.

Currently, it lists more than 3,600 mountain biking trails in Maine, found in state parks, national parks, land trusts, ski resorts, community forests, preserves, and other public land.

(light uplifting music) There's something mesmerizing about sitting on a beach and watching the water.

But as you gaze out over the ocean, have you ever wondered what lies under the waves or even just one drop of water?

The researchers at Bigelow Lab are learning more every day.

Murray Carpenter takes us there.

(light uplifting music) - The Gulf of Maine is a very productive ecosystem.

It's home to right whales, bluefin tuna, and lobsters.

But at the foundation of this ecosystem are plants that are so small and uncharismatic, they're often taken for granted.

But here at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, phytoplankton take center stage.

I meet Bigelow researchers, Nicole Poulton and Greg Gavelis walking down to the dock to get a water sample to demonstrate their process.

All right, so Nicole is grabbing a sample off the end of the dock.

What's she doing here?

- Well, she's taking a sample of water from her predetermined depth and the nice thing about that device, that Niskin bottle, is she can lower it down to the exact depth that she wants and then send that little weight down and it triggers kind of a trap door that traps a little bit of water there.

So she has a nice representative piece of the ocean at that exact point that we're interested in studying.

- [Murray] The water looks clear, but Poulton says that's deceptive.

- It looks clear, however, in every single milliliter in here, we have over millions and millions of bacteria.

And in addition to that, hundreds of thousands of phytoplankton, but the density is still not dense enough that you would see them with the naked eye.

You have to use a microscope to be able to see them.

- Up at the lab, Poulton uses vacuum pressure to pull the water sample through a fine glass filter.

After filtering the water, Poulton has a collection of phytoplankton and other small organisms tinting the filter green.

Wow, so everything's in there, it's just all mushed up together.

- It's all mushed together on top of the small filter.

So this filter here is basically has really small pore size so it allows all of that bacteria to accumulate right onto the surface.

The only thing that does pass through tends to be viruses because they're so small.

- [Murray] By closely studying plankton, Bigelow researchers have made important discoveries and published them in major scientific journals.

One of the most dramatic and frightening discoveries made at Bigelow, that phytoplankton in the Gulf of Maine have declined by two thirds over 20 years.

And then there was another discovery here published in the journal "Nature" that took the oceanography world by storm.

Poulton and colleagues studied the most abundant plankton, bacteria called prokaryoplankton, and showed that in the Gulf of Maine, less than 3% of these bacteria consume up to 30% of the oxygen in the ocean, while they're also known to produce a large amount of CO2.

This all may seem wonky, but it's important.

It shows that some microscopic organisms have an outsized influence on the planet's climate.

- So this is kind of the dark side of the picture with phytoplankton.

When we think about phytoplankton, we think about tiny plants or algae, and they make 50% of the oxygen we breathe.

But then there's all these other members of the plankton, especially bacteria, that are breathing a lot of that oxygen immediately.

Nature's all about balance.

And so we have areas of the ocean like kind of out here, the off the dock that we were just looking at where it's nice and green and vibrant and is creating a lot of oxygen.

But then we have other areas where there's actually more bacteria than algae or more active bacteria that are breathing up so much oxygen that it's formed dead zones where not even fish can survive.

- [Murray] Not only do phytoplankton produce half of the oxygen on earth, they're also the tiny building blocks of massive creatures like whales.

- But it's the base, the microscopic base of the food chain, which is both the most important and also the hardest to see.

So any method that we can develop that helps us understand that better is a huge step into understanding how the ocean as a whole works.

And single-cell genomics is I think an important part of that.

- There's a laser beam and you- - [Murray] To understand plankton on the single-cell level, Poulton uses something more sophisticated than the bulk sample she caught in the filter.

It's called a flow cytometer.

It sends a stream of tiny cells flowing in single file past a laser beam, which allows researchers to identify them.

- The thing is that, so it's thousands going past that laser beam, but they're all going down in single file and the laser beam's intersecting them and we're capturing all that data right here- - Right, yep.

- At this point.

- [Murray] This precision technology is often used in the biomedical field, but Poulton says it's equally important for understanding the world's oceans.

- One of the big issues is that a lot of people don't realize the importance of these organisms.

They're what we call the base of the food chain.

If we don't have those organisms, then we don't have the megafauna that we're used to, the fish that we consume in the upper trophic levels.

- [Murray] So no menhaden, no seals, no bluefin tuna.

- Exactly.

- None of that.

- [Nicole] None of that.

- [Murray] And Poulton and Gavelis say it's more critical than ever to understand the microscopic plankton that are not only feeding fish and lobsters and whales, they're also producing half of the planet's oxygen.

For "Borealis," I'm Murray Carpenter.

- The folks here at Popham Beach are working to make the beach more accessible to people with physical disabilities.

There's a wheelchair with special tires that roll over the sand.

And last year, the beach installed this special mobility pathway made out of ADA access mats.

This is all part of a broader movement called Outdoors for All.

And here in Maine, one of the most inspiring and hardworking advocates is Enoch Glidden.

Jennifer Rooks catches up with him in Wells.

(light uplifting music) - So I just want to thank everybody for being here today.

- [Jennifer] This group is about to head out on a trail hike.

- Make sure you look around and really take it all in because when you go too fast, you miss things.

- [Jennifer] Organized by the Spina Bifida Association of Greater New England.

- Let's go slow and we'll just enjoy things and observe and see what we can see.

- [Jennifer] Hike leader Enoch Glidden, who like other participants was born with spina bifida, chose the location: the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in Wells.

- So this is a really amazing place that has been specifically built for people with disabilities.

And that's why we chose this, so that people could just enjoy the day and not have to worry about the disability anymore.

- [Jennifer] Glidden loves the outdoors and wants others to share his passion.

But for many people with mobility issues, nature can be daunting.

- It's hard to like do the woods because it's the woods, like, it's not always accessible.

- I think for a lot of people getting around as a wheelchair user, the amount of energy and time it takes to get to a trail and then maybe realize that it's not accessible or it's not accessible enough is discouraging.

- [Jennifer] This accessible nature trail has 11 stops.

Right away at the first outlook, the group spies wildlife, an eagle in the distance.

- [Hiker] There's a bald eagle.

- [Hiker] Where do I look?

- [Hiker Pointing] There, right out there over the water.

- [Jennifer] And a spotted sandpiper nearby.

- I see it, it's tiny.

You can't see it without binocs.

- When we think about at this spot, Rachel Carson and what she did for this service and what she did for conservation... - [Jennifer] US Fish and Wildlife Service Ranger Tom Wall leads the group.

He says, everyone is welcome here.

In fact, it is core to the mission of the refuge.

- Community's a big word here and I just wanted to emphasize that with this group here.

As we talk with each other, know that we're here for you and we want you here and we need you here.

(wheels rustling) - [Enoch] Smooth trails like this are really critical for a lot of people.

- [Jennifer] Enoch Glidden is a force of nature, working on many fronts to make the outdoors more accessible.

He travels the State of Maine, trying out trails in his wheelchair and writing a blog for Maine Trail Finder.

He inspires people with his accomplishments, including rock climbing.

His 2016 ascent of Yosemite's El Capitan was made into a film.

- One, two, three, forward.

- [Speaker] You're topping on El Cap, right now.

There it is, there it is, there it is, yes!

- He consults with communities, land trusts, and parks about how to build accessible trails.

And he is in high demand as a speaker, traveling to conferences all over the country.

Enoch says, of everything he does, this event holds special meaning.

- As a person born with spina bifida, it's sort of my favorite thing to do every year because it I like to get people outside who are like me and and show them that these places exist and that they too can get out into nature.

And I call it creating sparks because when people get out on trails and they see that they can do these things, that spark, and you can see it when it happens and it's an awesome thing.

- [Jennifer] Alex Danahy came up from Hopkinton, Massachusetts for this trail ride.

- To have someone like Enoch who is guiding you who's also a chair user, it's not just someone secondhand, "Oh, I came here with a chair user and they told me this."

It's another thing when you're physically experiencing it with someone else who can feel exactly what you're feeling as you go through the trail.

- There's no one at my school who has spina bifida, and... - [Jennifer] Liv Walsh is a student at Cape Elizabeth High School.

For her, today is about nature, yes, but also about connection.

- It's just cool to have like a community who actually gets it.

I mean like, 'cause I can talk to my friends and like complain about stuff and just like vent, but they don't understand it.

And they'll be sympathetic, but they don't understand it the same, in the same like personal way that spine B people do.

So t's just fun to like have that.

- [Jennifer] Glidden wants people to try new things.

His mantra, "Instead of asking can I, ask how can I."

That philosophy has worn off on Danahy.

- Try, just go out and try and don't be afraid to fail.

I think it's, in general, no matter who you are, I think people are too afraid of failure.

And I've always believed that you learn more in failure than you do on a win.

- I think everyone should get out in nature and like do hikes and like hike trails and paths, and like meet someone with spina bifida.

Just like make friends with them.

Like just, yeah, 'cause like, we're people and like we wanna be friends with you and like, we don't mind if you ask questions as long as you're nice about it.

- [Jennifer] At the end of this hike, Ranger Wall asks everyone to gather and take an oath.

- I promise to protect.

- [Together] I promise to protect.

- [Tom] Wildlife and habitat.

- [Together] Wildlife and Habitat.

- [Jennifer] A vow to care about the outdoors and others, just like Enoch Glidden does.

- All right, now you are all officially Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge Junior Rangers.

You'll be expected to report to work eight o'clock Monday morning.

- [Jennifer] For "Borealis," I'm Jennifer Rooks.

- As we say goodbye, we leave you in the skies over Scarborough Marsh.

Thank you for joining us for "Borealis."

And if you've missed any of the episodes in the first season, go check 'em out on YouTube.

(light uplifting music) (gentle acoustic guitar)