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Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, ME

 

Kennebunk Plains WMA is located in Kennebunk, ME. The 1000-acre sandplain community provides vital habitat for the endangered grasshopper sparrow and four other animals and plants of special concern in Maine.

Management at Kennebunk Plains WMA

Management at Kennebunk Plains is led by The Nature Conservancy's southern Maine Chapter. Objectives of management of the Plains include:

  • encouraging wildlife ( New England cottontail and ground-nesting birds: nighthawk, woodcock)
  • decreasing the threat of wildfire in the wildland-urban interface
  • duff reduction
  • species composition change by opening up some shrubland and some pitch pine areas, increasing regeneration of pitch pine and tree oak species
Recent management treatments on the Plains involved:
  • thinning 150 acres in spring 2004, with plans to continue thinning in 2005
  • thinning to decrease ladder fuels in the wildland-urban interface
  • thinning, then burning to increase pitch pine and tree oak regeneration

Click here for a summary of 2006 activities at Kennebunk, Waterboro, and Hollis.

Photo documentation, including before-and-after pictures of the work at the Kennebunk Plains is in progress.

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Contacts for more information about work in Southern Maine

T. Parker Schuerman
TNC-Southern Maine
PO Box 840
Moody, ME 04054
pschuerman@tnc.org