Characteristic Plants Sugar Maple Forest These plants are frequently found in this community type. Those with an asterisk are often diagnostic of this community. State Rank: S4 as noted above, but lacks richer site species characteristic of Maple – Basswood – Ash Canopy Community Description Forest. American beech The canopy is dominated by sugar maple, Sugar maple* with white ash a frequent associate Similar Types White Ash* in southern or central Maine. Other These forests are intermediate in nutrient Yellow birch associated hardwood species include regime and composition between Maple Sapling/shrub yellow birch and striped maple. Beech – Basswood – Ash Forests and Beech – Alternate-leaved dogwood may be present but is less abundant Birch – Maple Forests. Maple – Basswood Red Elderberry than in Beech – Birch – Maple Forests. – Ash Forests are typically small-patch types Striped maple* Sugar Maple Forest Conifers are usually sparse. The closed- in ravines or coves, with more restrictive Sugar maple* canopy forest has little to moderate rich-soil indicators such as basswood, Yellow birch shrub cover, moderate to dense herb maidenhair fern, blue cohosh, broad- often occur on drier sites (e.g., ridgetops) Herb cover, and may have local carpets of sugar leaved sedge, plantain-leaved sedge, and and/or more acidic soils (e.g., granitic types Christmas fern maple seedlings. Characteristic shrubs Braun’s holly fern. Beech – Birch – Maple in Downeast Maine). Doll’s eyes* include alternate-leaved dogwood and Forests typically contain as much if not Jack in the pulpit red-elderberry. Typical herbs of this type, more beech than sugar maple and lack Conservation, Wildlife, and Round-leaved violet which are scarce or absent from beech- the diversity and abundance of rich site Management Considerations Sarsaparilla birch-maple forests, include jack-in-the- indicators. Beech – Birch – Maple Forests This forest type has been extensively Shining clubmoss* pulpit, doll’s eyes, round-leaved violet, harvested and managed in northern Spikenard* grape fern, zig-zag goldenrod, spikenard, Location Map Maine. Most management techniques Striped maple false Solomon’s seal, and long-stalked diverge from the natural gap pattern, which sedge. is at the scale of single trees or small groups Associated Rare Plants Semi-rich Northern Hardwood Forest of trees. Large (>100 acres) examples Autumn coral-root Soil and Site Characteristics reflecting only natural disturbance are Broad beech fern These northern hardwood forests occur scarce statewide, and intact examples in Cut-leaved toothwort at moderate elevations on slightly central and southern Maine tend to be Nodding pogonia enriched, moderately drained soils smaller and more isolated. Tall white violet -- often silt loams derived from pelite or other subacidic bedrock. They This type provides nesting habitat for a Associated Rare Animals may occur as inclusions within typical large number of passerine bird species, Early hairstreak northern hardwood forests, or, in such as the black-throated green warbler, northern Maine, they may occur over rose-breasted grosbeak, scarlet tanager, larger areas (hundreds of acres) and be ovenbird, and a large proportion of the Examples on Conservation the locally dominant northern hardwood global population of black-throated blue Lands You Can Visit forest. warblers. • Deboullie Ponds Public Lands – Aroostook Co. Diagnostics Distribution • Squa Pan Public Lands – Aroostook Sugar maple is dominant or co-dominant New England - Adirondack Province Co. (>50% cover) with yellow birch or white and Laurentian Mixed Forest Province. • White Mountain National Forest ash. Conifers and beech each form Extends east, west, and north from Maine. – Oxford Co. less than 25% cover. The herbaceous layer includes at least several species Landscape Pattern: Small to Large Patch indicative of moderate soil enrichment, Maine Natural Areas Program.