Early Thanksgiving

Walk In The Bog

On Saturday, I decided to check out a section of the new NWRS boardwalk located on Freeland Road.

The boardwalk allows the visitor to get up close and personal with some of the wildlife and bog areas. The first part of the boardwalk has an observation deck that overlooks an active beaver dam.



The beaver would be much easier to spot at dusk. I remember Judy and I were observing a beaver dam on Spruce Knob several years ago. It was really great to be able to not only see a mother beaver and her young, but hear then gnawing within their lodge. The beaver is the largest rodent in our state.

This section of the boardwalk is new.

The boardwalk goes to a fenced in area where the balsam fir is being protected. Originally, vast forests of spruce covered much of this area, but these were nearly destroyed by logging and subsequent fires. The legacy of this past has had lasting, harmful consequences to the plants and animals that depend upon the conifer forests and conifer-dominated wetlands for their survival. Though red spruce has struggled to come back, balsam fir is being decimated by an insect pest accidentally introduced from Asia.

The pest that is attacking the balsam fir in the valley is the balsam woolly adelgid. The balsam woolly adelgid (Adelges piceae) is frequently and mistakenly referred to as the balsam woolly aphid. While related to aphids, it belongs to an entirely different family of "sucking" insects. This pest, an imported insect of European stock, arrived on the North American continent about 1900. It has become a notorious pest of native true firs (Abies spp.), and of some exotic true fir species. The fencing protects this stand from another danger - overgrazing by the local deer population.

Wait! What is that moving in the field to my left?

Oh, my.... this carnivore seems to be at home in his tree stand.

OK- I fib! I did not see a black bear, but I did see many of these critters that are contributing to the demise of the balsam fir!

It is important on any path to take one's time and look carefully. The reindeer lichen was plentiful along the boardwalk.

I always love the hummocks of sphagum moss that seems to hug the bases of the trees.