Natural History

This page is under construction. The natural history section will strive to paint a picture not just of the ecosystems and the flora and fauna which live in and near Sebec Lake, but also to paint a picture of the whole story of the Natural History of the area. The change which has left us with the lake, stone, and lake shore ecosystems we know today.

The Beginning: Ice Age

The Natural History of Maine and Sebec Lake really begins during the last Ice Age about 25,000 years ago when the geology and lanscape was redically changed by the movements of a 1.5 mile thick glacier. This massive glacier completely covered the State of Maine until approximately 17,000 years ago. The movement and scraping of this ice sheet scraped away the rock, topography, and the entire ecosystem which had previously been there. The movements of the ice caused and subsequent melting created the topography, sand deposites, boulder piles, and the river and lake basins which we see today.

Like an overloaded boat, the massive weight of the glacier was enough to push the surface of the Earth 500 feet down into the mantle of the Earth. This subsidance plus the abundance of melt water raised the sea level across the northern hemispher to much higher than it is today.  Sebec Lake was once connected to or very near to the sea. As the weight of the glacier was removed, the ground slowly rebounded back to it's current level, causing Sebec to become further and further from the Sea. During this time, Atlantic salmon become trapped in the lake and become one of only four populations of native landlock salmon in the state.

By about 13,000 years ago the ice had mostly receeded from Maine and it had been replaced by cold and treeless tundra.  This icy plain was populated by ice age animals like Mammoths, musk ox, and caribou. The animals were soon followed by North America's first settlers, the nomadic paleo-indians, because of it's proximity to the coast they likely lived near Sebec. As time passed, the tundra ecosystem was was slowly replaced by taiga, a spruce-fir forests which currently dominates much of Canada. The warming and slow succession continued for thousands of years until the forest was replaced by the mixed New England-Acadian forests central Maine is known for today.

For more information: University of Maine Climate Pages and Friends of Acadia: Maine's First Lake