The more one learns about forests and water, the clearer it becomes that they are not two separate things, but connected in so many ways that eventually it becomes difficult to distinguish one from the other.
In the streams of the upper Androscoggin River watershed, these connections are already evident and are set to become much stronger after Mahoosuc Land Trust and a crew of professional foresters selectively cut and clear the woods to foster wildlife habitat: leaving large dead trees, allowing some healthy hardwoods to keep growing, avoiding removing trees next to the stream. The forests of Maine have been so altered by past logging that even conservation areas require management to bring a diversity of wild life back to the woods and ensure a plentiful supply of clean water. Time is of the essence, because change is coming to the Great North Woods.
This story for Northern Woodlands required digging out old notes from a graduate course in River Ecology nearly twenty years ago, and inspired a new appreciation for woodland streams, and the way water carries earth and sky to the sea.
Catherine Schmitt 