maple, beech and yellow birch, are the most predominant, with associate species such as black cherry, white ash, red maple, basswood, big-tooth aspen and red oak can be found at some locations. White pine and hemlock also carve out some groves of their own, particularly in areas closer to streams. Hobblebush and serviceberry are common shrubs at the higher elevations. Vascular plants to be found in the forest understorys include several fern varieties (predominantly woodfern and hay-scented), stinging nettle and jewelweed. trillium, wood sorrel, clintonia, bunchberry, starflower and foamflower round out the biome for the flowering plants. One ravine has been found to support a colony of nodding pogonia, an orchid that grows in only three other locations in New York. Animal life Mammals that favor forest habitat predominate within the Slide Wilderness. Among the 49 species known to exist there, black bears have done exceptionally well, as have snowshoe hare, gray squirrel and porcupine. White-tailed deer, who were successfully reintroduced into New York in 1887 via a protected habitat on lands now part of the wilderness area, winter here. Cottontail rabbit and beaver also maintain lower population levels. Fisher were reintroduced to the area in the late 1970s and have thrived in numbers significant enough to make life difficult for the porcupine, always abundant in the Catskills. Birds are an especially important component of the local ecosystem for historical reasons. Bicknell's thrush was first observed on the summit of Slide in 1881; today, after recently being declared a separate species from the gray-cheeked thrush, it is considered a threatened species and its summer breeding areas in the boreal forests important enough that in 1999, New York governor George Pataki augmented the wilderness status of the area with Bird Conservation Area status that applied to almost all the Catskill High Peaks. This protects not only the Bicknell's but other species such as the black-and-white warbler, black-throated blue warbler, Canada warbler, red-eyed vireo, Louisiana waterthrush, scarlet tanager and rose-breasted grosbeak, some of which require large unbroken forests to nest. More common birds observed in the area include ruffed grouse and wild turkey, the latter being common enough to be a game species in the springtime. In all, 98 species of birds are believed to make their home here. The streams of the Catskills, including those in this wilderness, are famous for their trout, and the brook, brown and rainbow varieties can