Mowry Beach Preserve, along the edge of the village of Lubec, provides public access to one of the easternmost sandy beaches in the country, protecting 1,800 feet of shoreline along a 1.2 mile beach overlooking Lubec Channel and Campobello Island. Acquired in 2004 by the Quoddy Regional Land Trust, the predecessor of Downeast Coastal Conservancy, the property had previously been used as a pasture field, a commercial cranberry bog, and even a location for a traveling circus. A 1,700 foot wooden boardwalk crosses coastal-scrub woodland, and at low tide the beach reveals a drowned forest of ancient tree stumps marking the site of a primeval forest. In 1994, a 54-foot finback whale washed ashore here and was buried beneath the sand; twenty years later, volunteers from the local community and the University of Maine at Machias exhumed portions of the whale to preserve and assemble its skeleton. The preserve's 1,800 feet of sandy beaches and dunes are unusual for Washington County's coastline and provide unique marine and wildlife habitats, with shoreline used by shorebirds, waterfowl, and shellfish, including red knot, roseate tern, and several species of sandpiper. Inside the property, a large freshwater shrub-scrub wetland empties into the intertidal zone and provides essential cover and forage for mammal, songbird, amphibian, and reptile species.