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Midcoast

Ecoregion in ME

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Less developed than Ecoregion 59f to the south, the Midcoast ecoregion of Maine is an indented shoreline type of coast, or “drowned coast”, with long, narrow, rocky peninsulas and intervening deep, narrow estuaries. North-striking metasedimentary rocks occur with deep glacially scoured valleys. Eroding bluffs of glaciomarine clay provide sediments in the sheltered embayments to form extensive mud flats and salt marshes. Many riverine and estuarine wetlands occur here. Merrymeeting Bay is the largest freshwater tidal bay north of the Chesapeake in the eastern U.S., and provides important waterfowl habitat. The coastal waters of the ecoregion are the northern limit for some marine invertebrates, such as the American oyster and quahog clam. The Camden Hills area, including peaks such as Mt. Megunticook overlooking Penobscot Bay, contains some of the highest hills along the Maine coast, outside of Mount Desert Island in Ecoregion 82g. Forests of beech, birch, maple, red oak, and white pine occur. Pitch pine also grows here on isolated coastal bluffs. It has much less maritime spruce-fir forest than Ecoregion 82g to the east. With a transitional nature to the vegetation, the region has the highest woody species richness in Maine; several southern New England woody species reach their northern range limit here, and some northern species reach their southern range limit.

— EPA

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