Mountain Brooks Wilderness Preserve

Riley Township, Oxford County, Maine 6,730 acres Download Map

Restoring a mountain home for wildlife

More than 2,000 vertical feet separate the highest and lowest points of Mountain Brooks Wilderness Preserve, a 6,730-acre property benefitting from forever-wild protection after decades of active forest management. Situated along Maine’s border with New Hampshire, the Preserve encompasses several peaks in the White Mountains’ Mahoosuc Range, as well as four major waterways and various smaller brooks and streams. Together, these diverse landscape features provide critical habitat for threatened and endangered species, while bolstering a vital wildlife corridor.

Amid the property’s dramatic slopes are exemplary natural communities. Mountain Brooks is mostly Northern Hardwood Forest, characterized by a mix of hardwood and softwood tree species. The Maine Natural Areas Program has also mapped approximately 200 acres of Subalpine Fir Forest on the property’s higher points. In these areas, high elevation and cold-loving species like balsam fir, paper birch, and red spruce abound, while wood fern, bluebead lily, and starflower spread across the forest floor. To the southeast one can find about 82 acres of Spruce-Pine Woodland, where balsam fir, black spruce, northern white cedar, red spruce, and white pine comingle atop carpets of sheep laurel, lowbush blueberry, bracken fern, and shadbush.

Complementing these diverse forests are plentiful water features. The Preserve’s primary watercourse is Lary Brook, whose cold, clear waters destined for the Androscoggin River are home to native brook trout. About two-thirds of the Preserve and additional lands to its west drain into Lary Brook, while the southeastern portion of the property drains into another prominent waterway, Twitchell Brook. Both of these, as well as French and Peabody Brooks, are fed by a multitude of smaller streams and creeks. A wetland in the northeastern portion of the Preserve is home to a healthy beaver population, as are other sections of the Preserve.

A haven and corridor for biodiversity

The Preserve’s land and water features offer ample habitat for imperiled species. Maine’s Beginning with Habitat initiative indicates that much of the property is home to the Bicknell’s Thrush, a state endangered species that requires high-elevation forests for breeding, and the state threatened Blackpoll Warbler. Another endangered species documented at Mountain Brooks is the Peregrine Falcon. These raptors prefer to nest on cliffs near a water source, a familiar scene at the Preserve.

These exposed cliffs also serve as hibernacula for Maine’s bat species, all of which are species of special concern and three of which are endangered. Other wildlife likely to be found at Mountain Brooks include turkey, moose, bobcat, black bear, coyote, and marten, among many others.

These creatures benefit not only from the Preserve itself, but also its location amid nearby conserved lands. To the Preserve’s north are Maine’s nearly 10,000-acre Mahoosuc Ecological Reserve and Northeast Wilderness Trust’s roughly 6,000-acre Grafton Forest Wilderness Preserve, while to its southwest is the White Mountain National Forest. The Wildlands Network has recognized the property as embedded within a Potential Core Natural Area of the Eastern Wildway. Furthermore, Mountain Brooks falls within the Staying Connected Initiative’s Northeast Kingdom—Northern New Hampshire—Maine Linkage Area.

This broader conservation context compounds the benefits of the Preserve’s protection. Plant and animal species need connected, resilient lands to thrive, especially as species shift their ranges in response to climate change. Forever-wild conservation of the Mountain Brooks Wilderness Preserve adds a vital piece to a growing corridor of protected lands in northern New England, ensuring that this ecologically vibrant region in western Maine remains so into the future.