Project Puffin: The Improbable Quest to Bring a Beloved Seabird Back to Egg Rock

Project Puffin tells the story of how puffins were restored to nesting colonies off the Maine coast after being extirpated by hunters in the late 1800s. As a young ornithology instructor at the Hog Island Audubon Camp, Dr. Stephen W. Kress learned that puffins had once nested on nearby islands. He decided to bring them back to Eastern Egg Rock, despite skepticism and the need to develop new restoration methods at a time when many advocated for letting nature proceed without intervention. The project has successfully restored more than 1,000 puffin pairs to three Maine islands. Restoration techniques developed through the project have been applied to help rare and endangered seabirds in other locations worldwide. The reestablished puffin populations now provide data on the effects of climate change. Kress's work demonstrates that people can restore lost wildlife populations and their supporting habitats.