It was my last day in the Maine North Woods for my National Geographic Young Explorer grant. I paddled on Munsungan Lake, a headwater to the famous Aroostook River. The lake’s shoreline, rising from the water in sand and small rocks, bordered stands of young forest, including bright white birch trunks that stood out from the dark green shades of the surrounding woods. Here and there, a tall tree stood above the rest, perhaps a remnant of an older forest.

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