By Dave Publicover, AMC Senior Staff Scientist
When the AMC purchased the 37,000-acre Katahdin Iron Works property in December 2003, we were faced with a major task - learning as much about the property as quickly as possible. While we had information on timber types and volumes from the previous owner, we had no detailed information on the ecological characteristics of the property. This information would be critical if the AMC was going to practice the type of ecologically sensitive management it envisioned. What areas were suitable for timber harvesting, and what areas should be protected? Where could trails and other recreational facilities be responsibly located? It was clear that basic ecological information would be critical to all subsequent planning for the property, as well as providing a basis for the development of environmental education materials.
In the summer of 2004, two graduate student interns, Jane Moscowitch of the University of Vermont and Jenna Hamm of Antioch New England, working under the supervision of AMC Staff Scientist Dave Publicover, undertook an ecological survey of the property. Jane’s focus was the entire property, while Jenna concentrated on the Caribou Bog region in the southern part of the property. Their work had two major goals - creating a comprehensive natural plant community map of the property, and identifying ecologically significant features or areas that should receive special consideration during future management.
The natural community map developed by Jane and Jenna shows the distribution of 31 distinct natural plant communities. The property includes about 40% of the 75 communities distinguished in inland Maine by the Maine Natural Areas Program, demonstrating the wide diversity of ecological conditions on the property. These communities range from the Beech-Birch-Maple, Spruce-Northern Hardwood, and Spruce-fir forests that cover the majority of the property, to less common upland communities such as Maple-Basswood-Ash Forest and Spruce Talus Woodland, to a wide variety of forested and open wetland types with such exotic names as Northern Whitecedar Woodland Fen, Sheep Laurel Dwarf Shrub Bog and Bog Moss Lawn.
Natural communities reflect the underlying potential mature vegetation that would occur in an area in the absence of human manipulation. They are different than timber types, which consider only trees and reflect what is actually present. As long as harvested forests are regenerated naturally (as opposed to planting exotic species), timber types will bear some relationship to the underlying natural communities. However, there can be signficant differences - an example is the Spruce-Northern Hardwood community, much of which has been converted to hardwood timber types because spruce has been preferentially harvested out of these areas. The natural community map will help us identify areas where restoring a component of spruce to hardwood stands should be a goal of management.
Jane also identified a range of ecologically signficant areas - something other than the “plain vanilla” younger stands that cover much of the property. Most of these are areas with “late-successional” characteristics - stands that have been less intensively harvested and contain more old forest features such as large diameter trees and dead wood (logs and snags). Though not old growth, they may have good potential as target areas for old growth restoration. They also identified a few unusual communities, most notably a stand of late-successional Maple-Basswood-Ash Forest on the northeast shore of Houston Pond. This community grows only in small areas of more fertile soil and is a potential site for a number of rare plant species. This is the only part of the property where less common species such as maidenhair fern and blue cohosh have been found. Jane also located one rare plant population (pink pyrola, along the upper West Branch of the Pleasant River) and identified over 320 plant species and 120 species of birds on the property.
As an example of how this information affects management decisions, on her first day in the field Jane and Dave identified a small enriched seep emerging from a cliff on Indian Mountain. As a result of this discovery, they relocated a short stretch of a proposed trail that had been flagged along the base of the cliff to avoid impacting the seep during trail construction.
Based on this information, we have developed a land allocation plan that will guide future forest management. About 10,000 acres in the northern part of the property, centered on the watershed of the West Branch of the Pleasant River, has been designated as an ecological reserve. Another 1,700 acres will be retention areas - smaller areas ranging from 8 to over 600 acres that will be reserved from harvesting to protect specific ecological, recreational or scenic values. The plan also identifies inoperable areas (primarily slopes too steep for harvesting) and protective buffers along streams, ponds and trails. Overall about 43% of the property will be available for timber management and 57% will be kept as natural area.
Our plans for the coming year include additional field work to further document ecologically signficant areas and establishing a permanent system of monitoring plots that will allow us to assess the effects of our management over the long term.
