Sphagnum bog

[nepenthes99]

While trekking through through the wetlands surrounding the pond near my house I found large amounts of sphagnum moss. The area had very sandy soil, constant water, and lots of sun. It is a beautiful area, except it has been neglected greatly. There is trash everywhere, and people used the area as a dumping ground in the 70's. There are no cps but there are other bog plants like xyris. I am thinking of starting a project to clean it up and to protect it. There are no cps, but there probably were a long time ago. I would like to plant some Purpureas, utrics like inflata, and drosera like filiformis, intermedia, and rotundifolia. I will post pics in spring.

[nepenthes77]

I was with Nepenthes99 on this occasion. All of the moss had large heads, and all of the moss was directly sorrounding to the pond. We found most of this moss when we unraveled from layers of decomposed leaves. This area has been greatly abused, in areas where sphagnum could have been, there were burn marks. We suspect many people have lit fires in the area for camping. The trash ranges from chips bags and Poland Spring bottles, to things like jackets and clothing. We feel like the area should be protected and cleaned up, as it is a very beautiful area.

There are some areas that have sphagnum which are by a stream that we suspect have not had many visitors, as there was no garbage, and we had to go through a series of long tendrils with many, many thorns on them.

It would wonderful if we could somehow rejuvinate this area, maybe put in some bog plants as mentioned nepenthes99, clean the area up, and raise awareness of how important this place is.

[ICPS-bob]

Before you begin to plant exotics willy-nilly on someone's land, it would be advisable to determine ownership of the land and obtain written permission. Even if the plants that you suggest are "native" to the general area, they are still exotics in their genetics.

[jdallas]

I wouldn't be too quick to assume you don't have any sundews in that bog. It's still winter and they would be in their hibernacula stage. Unless you were out there on your hands and knees inspecting, they would be very hard to spot. I've been to sphagnum bogs here in Oregon that I thought had no sundews only to return in summer to find hundreds of them.

Jeff

[nepenthes99]

Thanks, I will look for drosera in the spring. I would also like to acquire seeds of plants from near locations such as the pine barrens so it can be as genetically accurate as possible.

[nepenthes77]

We know who the owner of this land is. This land is located deep within the development we live in, so this is the community's land. We can ask the owners of the community if we may plant the list of plants mentioned above.

Also, we think this sort of pristine habitat should be preserved. There are children throwing tennis balls into the pond and stripping trees of branches to make "clubhouses"

[coldcoffee]

Very cool project! I hope it works out well (I also hope you will post photos).

[nepenthes99]

Today we started the cleanup project, which will proceed for the next few days and will be concentrated mostly in the spring. I was amazed at the amount and variety of trash- tires, lawn chairs, balls, bottles, and even large oil barrels. We also encountered a few children throwing rocks and logs into the water and advised them to keep off the sphagnum mats. Hopefully Meadowview can even help and organize a protection project.

[coldcoffee]

Oil barrels?! Wow!

[nepenthes99]

Fortunately they were empty, although there was some pollution a few years ago which could have been oil residue, but was probably the by product of extremely dense and vigorous algal growth which usually blooms in mid-summer, causing thick, colored foam to form over the water. The growth would be entirely disgusting to me if I were not studying phycology.