SFMA Facts & Figures
The 29,537 acre SFMA (14% of the park) is located in Township 6, Ranges 9 and 10, in the northwest corner of Baxter State Park.
In contrast to the steep, mountainous terrain found around Katahdin, the SFMA is mostly gently rolling terrain lying between 800' and 1000' elevation. Forest covers 94% of the SFMA and consists mostly of softwoods and softwood/hardwood mixes. The remaining 6% of the area is taken up by about half of Webster Lake and four other remote ponds ranging from eleven to seventy-two acres in size, and Webster stream, which runs through the SFMA from west to east.
The forests existing on the SFMA today are the result of a mosaic of human and natural processes. The 1800's saw the first wave of logging on the area for large white pine. Later harvests focused first on spruce logs and then on pulpwood, continuing until the early 1950's. Evidence of past logging activities is still apparent throughout the area. Intermixed with the logging activities were natural processes such as wildfire and insect outbreaks which further shaped the forest into the pattern it holds today.
Twenty-five miles of the Park's hiking trail system traverses the SFMA via the Freezeout, Wadleigh Brook and Frost Pond trails.