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The Fourth Machias Lake ecological reserve includes a 3,560-acre core
reserve and a 3,751-acre late-successional forest management area. The
core reserve was established to maintain a suite of representative
wetland and forest ecosystems in a natural condition. The
late-successional area will be managed to approximate biologically
mature forest conditions as a buffer to the core reserve.
· The
reserve has a variety of physiographic features, such as eskers, kettle
ponds, and outwash beaches.
· It
abuts a 3,870-acre ecological reserve on the Maine Bureau of Parks and
Land’s Duck Lake Unit, which protect additional natural community types
and rare species.
· Fourth
Machias Lake Reserve, Duck Lake Reserve, and the Machias River project
completely protect the shoreline of Fourth Machias Lake and associated
wetlands.
· The
Fourth Machias Lake Reserve includes peatland and natural lake shore
communities not represented in the other reserves in the Maine-New
Brunswick Lowlands biophysical region. |
