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Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area Soils
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Soils are weathered from the broad, massive sandstone caprock. There are two main soil groups in the National Area: the Ramsey-Hartsells-Grimsley-Gilpin complex located immediately adjacent to the gorge, and the Hartsells-Lonewood-Ramsey-Gilpin complex found on the plateau. They are generally acidic, thin, and stony but richer on the floodplains.
Maine ocean islands provide the only nesting sites for Atlantic puffins in the United States. Eastern Egg Rock in the midcoast region, Seal Island and Matinicus Rock at the mouth of Penobscot Bay, and Machias Seal Island and Petit Manan Island off the downeast coast provide habitat for more than 4,000 puffins each summer.