The Environmental Citizen: Plant and Animal Identification in and around Our Site

Welcome one and all to this naturally occurring Silver Maple Floodplain Forest. In this lush, scenic environment you will encounter several types of flora and fauna. The predominant trees in this natural community are silver maples, – as you may have guessed –bur oak, red maple and the occasional American elm. Basswood, black ash, black cherry and green ash trees are also found in these particular ecosystems. Due to the severe competition for sunlight and growing space shrubs are a rarity in this location. However, herbs possess the ability to thrive in the shade of a flourishing canopy; therefore, a variety of ferns and nettles can be seen emerging from the soil. This vast abundance of herbs and trees can also be attributed to the seasonal flooding that is characteristic of this natural community. In addition to the menagerie of flora present in this location you may also catch a glimpse of various birds such as the Northern waterthrush, belted kingfisher, green heron and the bank swallow. Should you choose to visit this area in the late evening a barred owl or a silver-haired bat may make an appearance. If you are exceptionally fortunate you may observe a rare creature such as the wood turtle, spotted turtle or Blanding’s turtle in this beautiful ecosystem.

Three Mills

    In one of the pits, two pieces of glass that fit perfectly together, were uncovered. It is believed to be a bottle. The bottom of the bottle reads "J & W N & Co." After more research, nothing could be found about J & W N & Co, except for one article about the Three Mills in London. As a side picture, there was a label from a gin bottle published by J & W N & Co. Bingo. The bottle is believed to have been a gin bottle produced by J & W Nicholson & Co, a London-based gin company. Founded by William Nicholson, a retired amateur cricket player, the company was in production from the 1730's-1941, inhabiting in the Three Mills from 1872-1966.

Now the big question: What is a gin bottle produced in London doing in Unity, Me?

Blast from the Past

Here is a newspaper article in the Bangor Daily News from November 15th, 2004. This is one of the last classes to try to unearth remains of the tannery.

 

To see the full article, check it out at Google News

Geology of the Sandy Stream Area

There was a time, before the last ice age, wherein Unity, Maine was covered by oceans. These ocean waters lightly deposited sediment over the course of many years. This gradual deposition led to a thick, dense layer of blue clay that we can find now, in modern times. After the time of the oceanic Unity, came a time of frigid weather, these oceans froze over and resulted in what we know as the ice age. These frozen oceans became what we call glaciers. Although the glaciers are frozen water they still move, very slowly. As the glaciers moved they picked up enormous rocks and dragged them across the landscape carving out massive gouges in the land. Over the course of thousands of years the glaciers began to melt, as they did this there were massive sub-glacier rivers. These rivers carried all the rocks and sediment with them. As the years go by the glaciers would slowly disappear, although the glaciers would eventually be gone, the rocks and sediment that were deposited along the river would remain. Once the glaciers were gone the rocks and sediment that were deposited along the rivers were/are visible as huge ridges that can run miles along the country side. These huge ridges are what we now call eskers. Along the Sandy stream there is what appears to be a large, steep embankment on the Northern side of the stream; this embankment is actually the tail end of an esker.

-Kari Lemelin, Ethan Roderick, and Rebecca Zerlin

U-Dig

Photo courtesy of Molly Lindh

Unity Dirt Investigation Guild is on the mission to locate a tannery that was once located on the banks of Sandy Stream in Unity, ME. Once a week, this student based group goes to the banks of the stream and digs pits to look for signs of the tannery. With a shovel in hand, the group hopes to uncover the Unity Tannery, a piece of the history of Unity, ME.

Photo courtesy of Molly Lindh