Wild Plants and Wooly Bears: June 2016

Monday, June 20, 2016

Field Trip to Holbrook Island Wildlife Sanctuary/State Park

Wild Plants And Wooly Bears

I’ll lead two wild plant walks at Holbrook Island Wildlife Sanctuary and State Park in Brooksville on Sunday, July 3. The first of two walks will begin at 1 p.m. and the second starts at 3 p.m.

Holbrook is a mostly undeveloped state park with inland sections, including a small mountain and a considerable amount of seashore. Hiking trails abound. Park roads, while unpaved, are immaculately maintained.

The walk will begin at the Backshore Trail trailhead on the sanctuary’s main road, Indian Bar Road. From there we walk down a gentle, wooded slope and end at an old hayfield. Then we’ll walk back to the trailhead and drive the short distance to the parking lot at park headquarters.

From there, we’ll walk a short path down to a secluded beach where we’ll find all sorts of seaside goodies. Most every one of my favorite seaside plants live here.

Folks who have never visited Holbrook will find it a relaxed, scenic spot, an undiscovered jewel of wild land on Maine’s rocky coast. Even the drive to Holbrook has its charms, the winding roads offering spectacular views of Penobscot Bay, its mountains and islands.

To see Holbrook Island Sanctuary on a map, look at Map 15, B-2 of the DeLorme Atlas and Gazetteer.

I hope to see a few readers there. There is no fee for the plant walk and no sign-up list either. Just come, learn some new plants and enjoy this special piece of Maine.

About Tom Seymour

Besides writing freelance pieces for a number of magazines, I am also a regular columnist and feature writer for The Maine Sportsman Magazine, New England’s largest circulation outdoor magazine. Additionally, I am a regular contributor to Fisherman’s Voice Magazine, specializing in maritime history and human-interest stories. Finally, I write several columns for Courier Publication newspapers, including a home-and-garden column called From The Ground Up.

My book credits include Wild Plants of Maine, A Useful Guide, Hidden World Revealed, Musings of A Maine Naturalist and Tom Seymour's Forager's Notebook, all by Just Write Books, Topsham, Maine. I also wrote Foraging New England, Fishing Maine, Hiking Maine, Off The Beaten Path, Maine, Birding Maine and Nuts & Berries of New England, all for Globe Pequot Press. The Maine Sportsman has published a collection of my wildlife columns in book form as an inducement to subscribers. Finally, Tom Seymour's Maine, A Maine Anthology, iUniverse Press, is a collection of Maine history and folklore.

Foraging for wild plants is my great passion and these figure largely in my diet. I live in a small cottage that sits well off the road on 10 acres of land in Waldo, Maine.