Keeping the woods and waters of the Knox Conservation Land intact helps maintain the habitat of two rare species at this site. Eastern Ribbonsnake populations have been challenged by habitat loss in wetlands and along lake shorelines, and habitat degradation, where shorelines are changed as a result of upland forest removal. Redroot, a rare Atlantic Coastal Plain Flora plant species, also cannot survive along altered shorelines, and as such has disappeared from many other properties around Molega Lake and elsewhere in North America. Here, snakes, rare plants, and other species that thrive on healthy shorelines can count on protected habitat for years to come.