Acadia forests: Everything is changing.
David Byrne had it wrong; it’s not the same as it ever was. Everything is changing. The woods of Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island are amazing. You can hike from a granite-topped bald hill into the trees and in seconds be enveloped in darkness. If you spend some time hiking around this isle of many trails, you will find differences in the forest. Besides the apparent change from woodlands to bald hill tops, the forested zone has some distinct clusters of tree species. There is the dark woodland of conifers, contrasted by the birch and aspen bunches. Pre-European forests on Mount Desert Island (MDI) were dominated by the cold-adapted spruce-fir forests (Balsam Fir is typical along the Maine coast): these forests housed spruce grouse, red-backed voles, providing food and cover. The squirrels and chipmunks take advantage of the energy packed in the cone. While many bird species, such as the Blackburnian Warbler, Boreal Chickadee, and wrens, take ...