Clear cutting—for both environmental and recreational purposes—marks the latest change to the ever-evolving landscape of Mount Agamenticus

Gazing at the skyline, residents of southern Maine may have noticed something different about the view in recent months: Mount Agamenticus has gotten a haircut. In February, eight acres of Mount A were clear cut to make room for new shrubland. The change was stark—one day, the mountaintop was covered with 50-foot trees; the next day, it was bare.

On a volunteer workday at the mountain in York on Saturday, July 21, volunteer Phil Enright ofSouth Berwick said there have been “mixed reports” on the clear cutting. Some people appreciate the expanded view from the top, which now includes all of the mountains and hills to the north, west and east, stretching as far as Mount Washington on clear days. But others have found the loss of natural forest area hard to swallow.

“It depends on if you see it as a park or a wildlife area,” Enright said.

Of course, the fact is, Mount A is both. It has, at various times, also been a ski park, army lookout and farmland. The mountain’s varied history and current status as a recreation area, conservation site and watershed make it the intersection of many interests.

Roger Clements, head trail worker and member of the steering committee that makes decisions about Mount A, noted there are currently seven different agencies in charge of the mountain, including the towns of South Berwick and York, the national Nature Conservancy, Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, the York Land Trust, the Great Works Regional Land Trust, and the York Water District. Members of each group are on the steering committee, which can make for a tricky decision-making process.

But there are also some perks to having so many stakeholders at the local, state and national levels. While waiting for volunteers to arrive on July 21, Clements pulled a green four-wheeler called a Gator out of the conservation crew’s shed and remarked that a new wheel had just come from the York Water District.

Mount A’s new look is the result of years of study, followed by a few more years of fundraising. In 2009, the steering committee completed summit guidelines containing priorities for use of the mountain. “One of those priorities was maintaining and restoring the view,” said Robin Kerr, conservation coordinator of Mount Agamenticus.

The trees at the top, though beautiful, blocked the view from all but one side of the mountain, where there is a lookout tower. It took three years to raise the necessary funds to finally have the trees cut down earlier this year.

Though many visitors were surprised by the sight of the treeless summit, Mount A has historically been bald. It was a ski area from 1963 to 1973, called “Big A.” The northern and eastern sections of the summit were the site of ski trails. Kerr pointed out that these are the areas where you can see “shrubs and grasses already taking hold.” There is still a rusty T-lift on this portion of the mountain, along with a line of ski lift towers through the woods.

The ski area’s tenure at the mountain was cut short by lack of snow. The mountain’s proximity to the ocean tempered the snowstorms in the area, and after two consecutive years of declining snowfall, the park shut down. Just after the ski area closed, a proposal arose to develop the mountain with 3,000 condominiums. That’s when the towns of York and South Berwick banded together to purchase the mountain for public use.

The western side of the summit was in a “more mature state” when the clear cutting took place, said Kerr. The last time trees had been cut there was in the 1800s, when farmers last farmed on Mount A. Mainly cattle and sheep had occupied the mountain since the 1600s, but grazing was limited by bedrock close to the surface. A similar problem contributed to the creation of the Desert of Maine in Freeport. Most farmers left the granite-laden soil for prospects out West during the era of westward expansion.

The west side of Mount A is barren at the moment, a graveyard of dead branches and stumps, but

Kerr expects a full recovery within a few years. The newly cut areas will serve as “early successional habitat,” or young forest and shrublands. This type of forest is in decline in the Northeast, Kerr said, and restoring it is a priority of both Maine and New Hampshire. These efforts have been propelled in part by the increasing scarcity of the New England cottontail rabbit, whose population has dropped by 86 percent, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Their decline is due mainly to habitat losses.

Early successional habitat is distinguished from middle and mature successional habitats.

Forests evolve in cycles; pioneer species like grasses, shrubs, and birches take over an empty area, and then are gradually replaced by stronger, taller trees like pines, hemlocks and oaks. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service defines early successional habitat as land where vegetation has been growing for no more than 25 years. Most of the forests in Maine and other parts of the Northeast are older than that, comprised of mature forest trees.

Young forest and shrubland are an important habitat for many species. The Rachel Carson Wildlife Refuge and Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve recently published a brochure called “Wildlife Needs Shrublands.” It highlights 24 threatened or endangered species that rely on shrubland habitats for at least part of their lives. They include the New England cottontail, black racer snakes, Blanding’s turtles and spotted turtles.

The black racer, New England cottontail, and Blanding’s turtle all are on Maine’s state endangered species list, while the spotted turtle is on the federal threatened species list. The Center for Biological Diversity is petitioning to have Blanding’s turtles and spotted turtles added to the federal endangered species list. Blanding’s turtles’ habitat stretches only as far north as York County, and they need swamp-like vernal pools to reproduce. Both types of turtles need shrubland during nesting season, said Kerr. Mount A is one of the only places in York County that has vernal pools and shrubland.

The main obstacle to young forests and shrublands is that there is precious little open land for early successional habitats to take over. There are several reasons for this. One, Kerr pointed out, is that fire suppression in the Northeast prevents forest fires from periodically clearing mature forests and allowing grasses and shrubs to grow. Humans also prevent and minimize flooding, another natural killer of mature forest species. Also, farmlands cleared and abandoned by earlier settlers have now become mature forests, or the land has been converted into commercial developments, preventing pioneer species from taking hold. As a result of these factors, less than 2 percent of land in Maine today is shrubland.

The clear cutting at Mount A is a good example of an intersection of two interests: human and wildlife. Visitors enjoy a better view, while threatened flora and fauna replenish. It seems counterintuitive to those who witnessed clear cutting for development purposes in the 1990s, but Kerr compared this type of land management to homeowners pruning their yards.

Mount A isn’t the only park in the area working to improve its shrublands. In order to encourage cottontails to return, the Scarborough Marshes in Scarborough, Maine, “expanded” shrubland habitat in February 2011, clearing trees to make way for new species.

In other locations, controlled burns have been used to promote shrub growth. One such burn took place in March in the blueberry barrens near Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, where rare sandy plains have been found.

The downside of clear cutting or controlled burning is the negative public perception. “People don’t like the look of a clear cut,” Kerr said. “I just keep telling folks to try to keep an open mind and come back in a couple of growing seasons.”

In the meantime, visitors can enjoy the fringe benefits of open land. A new loop trail is planned for the west side of Mount A’s summit. Volunteers cleared a path during the volunteer workday to make way for this trail, which will be wider and more accessible than most of the mountain’s trails.

A portion will be located at the top of Fisher Trail, formerly the Horse Trail. Clements said the Horse Trail had three or four switchbacks through the woods, but in the soon-to-be established shrubland, there will be only one or two.

“It’s better for trail maintenance,” Clements said, “And most of the feedback from hikers and bikers is that they prefer fewer switchbacks.”

York’s Board of Selectmen approved the wider trail at Kerr’s request on July 23, another step in the process of making changes to the mountain. Narrower trails don’t require permission, but a six-foot-wide, gravel bed path does. The finished trail will be one mile long, and a portion of it will be approved for handicapped access.

A mountain biker popped out of the woods and peddled up the temporary Fisher Trail as volunteers got to work on July 21. Volunteers soon found rusty wire, remains of an electric fence that kept horses on the trail 10 years ago. They also found scraps of rusty metal from an army lookout that was here in the 1940s during World War II—further evidence of the many hats Mount A has worn over the last 200 years.

Despite the stark appearance of the clear-cut land, Mount A staffers try to minimize the visual human impact. As volunteers hacked away at the last patches of grass at the site of the new trail, Clements said he made sure to take pictures.

“Our goal is to have it look like we were never here,” he said—a distinct challenge in a place bustling with human activity in all four seasons.

Clements pointed out a small picnic area, where a rock wall supports an outcropping with a picnic table and bench. “I call that Sunset Boulevard,” he said, noting the perfect view to the west. People began wearing down the path to the small spot about a month ago, so the crew decided to make it a little more comfortable. “But, in a couple of years, we hope to have it look like it was always here, too,” Clements said.