National wetland condition assessment great meadow, Mount Desert Island, Maine 2015

Mittelhauser, Glen

From introduction: "Maine has over five million acres of freshwater wetlands. These wetlands are valuable not only for their beauty, but also for their capacity for regulating stream flow and for water retention during extreme weather events. Without wetlands as a natural flood control mechanism, flooding can become more severe. In Acadia National Park, wetlands make up roughly 20% of the total area of the Park. Great Meadow, in the valley between Dorr and Kebo Mountains on Mount Desert Island, is one of the largest palustrine wetlands (47 hectares) in the Park. It is a mixed wetland complex that includes emergent shrub/fen communities and adjacent forested wetlands (Calhoun et al. 1994). Portions of the wetland had substantial evidence of alteration in the past including roads, berms, ditching, and beaver activity (Manville 1942, Calhoun et al. 1994), which overall has restricted water flow in this wetland and altered the vegetative community (Vaux et al. 2008). Acadia National Park is planning some culvert work in the Great Meadow watershed over the next few years that may further alter water flow dynamics in the wetland, although the intent of the work is to make appropriate modifications to the culvert without altering the hydrology of the wetland. The goal of this project is to document water levels in the wetland using data loggers in wells, and also document the wetland vegetation, following protocols developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2011)."