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Wind Cave National Park Nonnative Species
Aliens are invading the park! Of the more than 500 species of plants within Wind Cave National Park, more than 100 are non-native. Some non-native, such as Canada thistle, can create monocultures that can threaten the diversity of the prairie. In a monoculture, only one plant thrives. This loss of species diversity affects not only the prairie, but the animals that depend upon the prairie as a food source. The park is researching several non-native plants to find ways to control them.
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.