new surroundings

Here's a little educational tidbit on Maine coasts!
Today we went to Rachel Carson wildlife refuge. Rachel Carson was a biologist, writer editor, and an employee for the U.S Fish and Wildlife service. She wrote three books about the land elements of the Maine coast. At her wildlife refuge we observed estuarine marsh land. Estuarine is a term for areas where inland river water and salt water combine.
the marsh contains salt pannes which are low spots of the marsh that hold salt water as the tide fluctuates. Only specially designed plants and invertebrates can live in the highly concentrated salt water of the salt pannes.

Here is a picture of a salt panne.

The rivers contained in the marsh land weave back and forth in the meandering curves. These waters fluctuate with the tides, thus they're filled and drained twice a day. The nutrients from the upland water and the slat water combine in these marshes causing them to thrive with a complex marine food web. Below are some pictures of the marsh land rivers.


All of these marshes surround a beautiful forest of evergreen, and white pine trees, the forest floor supports a vast amount of ferns growing in the shade. Here on the forest floor I saw the ladyslipper flower for the first time!