Experts see a last chance for southern Maine to prevent further fragmenting of wild areas.
Hiking through the woods at Mount Agamenticus, Don Cameron stooped to examine the base of a red maple tree. In one square-foot area on the tree, he counted four species of moss and three species of lichen. Where some people see just a forest, Cameron, an ecologist with the Maine Department of Conservation, sees a patchwork of distinct natural communities. The area is so diverse, he said, because northern and southern forest types meet and intermingle here. It's phenomenal, the amount of different organisms that can occur in this area.