Local browntail moth populations remain high Caterpillars emerging early by Eli Forman It’s a tale at least as old as continental drift—an organism from a distant habitat manages to catch a ride to an unfamiliar shore, benignly settling down to a new life or else inadvertently wreaking environmental havoc. American chestnut blight, emerald ash borer, Japanese knot weed, Dutch elm disease, European starlings—all are relatively modern examples of accidental travelers that managed to hitch a ride across continents as trade became a global phenomenon throughout the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. All the above are also present to some extent in Maine and have altered the native landscape to a greater or lesser degree, becoming endemic with the hopeful exception (so far) of the emerald ash borer.