The Great Works Reserve in south Sanford features easy, flat trails and a boardwalk through rare habitats.
Photo: Kevin McKeon
Check Out These Trails in Our Neck of the Woods
By Kevin McKeon, Maine Master Naturalist
Sanford is truly blessed from past and present community leaders’ foresight regarding our fair city’s quality of life. Their prescience has resulted in the establishment of many woodland trails that take us through varying wildlife habitats, some of which protect rare species. The protection and stewardship of these areas is the responsibility of all of us, and we help by keeping these special places in their natural condition, litter-free, and observing any conditions and required behaviors placed upon our visits to these generous owners’ properties. One of Sanford’s landowners is Mousam Way Land Trust, and one of its many special places is the Great Works Reserve.
Located in the southern part of an environmentally rich area called the Seven Ponds Area in southwestern Sanford near the North Berwick line, Great Works Reserve can be visited from dawn to dusk. Access is via Great Works Drive on the north side of Sand Pond Road. Great Works Drive is a private road, maintained by the local homeowners’ association. Public access was deeded during building permit approval for this cozy development. So of course, it’s important to remain mindful of maintaining good relations with the residents. Parking is available at the signed trailhead. An easy, third-mile footpath leads to a boardwalk and observation platform within a rare Atlantic white cedar forested wetland. Along the way, you will pass through another rare forest type: a pitch pine/scrub oak barren.
This barren forest is defined by three levels of plants: A canopy of pitch pine trees, an understory of scrub oak shrubs, and an herbal layer with occasional small forest openings holding an assortment of grasses, heaths, and ferns. Pitch pines grow up to 85 feet tall, with very thick and very rough, fire-resistant bark. Scrub oak forms very dense thickets that shade and out-compete most of the other plants in the woodland, except for a few huckleberry, blueberry, sweet fern, sheep laurel, and red cedar. Growing in the “savanna” openings are grasses, sedges, and wildflowers. The drought-prone, acidic, and nutrient-poor soils inhibit most other plant growth. A pitch pine-scrub oak woodland supports rare wildlife, including rare moths and butterflies which can exist only here.
Pitch pine-scrub oak habitats are one of the most threatened forest communities along the East Coast for a surprising reason: It’s because of people extinguishing forest fires! These barrens are described as a “fire-dependent ecosystem,” requiring a fire every six to 15 years to eliminate competing tree species; otherwise, the habitat would evolve into an oak-pine forest, which grows faster and would overtake the pitch pine-scrub oaks. Sadly, Great Works Reserve has begun that transition, with white pine, birch, maple and oak trees invading and growing taller than some of the slower-growing pitch pines. This woodland type has fire-adapted itself by being friendly to fire-loving conditions — thin, dry soil; short, dry bushes; and flammable resinous fuel. This is conducive to a quickly spreading, easy to burn, and hot fire.
So, this habit wants to burn! — and here’s why. Pitch pine’s thick bark can resist quick-moving fires, and some of the reserve’s trees show the black, charred scars of a 1957 fire. Their seed cones are serotinous, meaning that the cones are heavily sealed with pine resin and require fire to soften the resin, allowing the cones to open and release the tree’s seeds. Scrub oaks have large root collars just below the soil surface that have hundreds of growth nodules that quickly sprout up vigorous new growth after a fire. These sprouts grow an amazing three to four feet per year; after three years, acorns are produced that germinate into seedlings. So, fire ensures and enhances the pitch pine/scrub oak forest’s survival.
Since the controlled burning of forests is an expensive, labor-intensive treatment done by seasoned professionals, maintenance of Great Works Reserve requires hands-on, mechanical means. Brush cutting, soil disturbance, and selective invasive tree removal are some useful preservation methods. Girdling targeted invasive trees would also have the extremely beneficial result of providing large dead trees, or snags, for cavity-nesting wildlife like woodpeckers, owls, raccoons, pine martens and foxes.
What many folks don’t realize is that land trusts’ lands represent a liability to the trust, because it’s the trusts’ responsibility to maintain their lands in accordance with approved land management plans generally attached to each property. Since land trusts offer public access for most of their lands, and occasionally ask for the public’s help in maintenance, consider lending a hand.
Editor’s note: Did you see something unusual last time you were out in the woods? Were you puzzled or surprised by something you saw? Ask our “Out in the Woods” columnist Kevin McKeon. He’ll be happy to investigate and try to answer your questions. Email him directly at: kpm@metrocast.net
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