Pinhook Bog

Last updated

Pinhook Bog National Natural Landmark
Pinhook Bog NNL Plaque.jpg
Location LaPorte County, Indiana, United States
Nearest city Michigan City, Indiana
Coordinates 41°36′54″N86°50′54″W / 41.61500°N 86.84833°W / 41.61500; -86.84833
Area25 acres (100,000 m2)
Governing body National Park Service
Designated1965

Pinhook Bog is a unique bog in Indiana that has been designated a National Natural Landmark. It is part of Indiana Dunes National Park, an area that many citizens, scientists, and politicians fought hard to preserve. [1] [2] [3] Its sister bog, Volo Bog, is located nearby. [2] The bog contains a large variety of plants, including insect eating plants, tamarack trees, stands of blueberry bushes, and floating mats of sphagnum moss. Pinhook Bog is about 580 acres (2.3 km2), a quarter of which is a floating mat of sphagnum peat moss. A "moat" separates the bog from the uplands.

Contents

Geology

The bog is a glacial kettle. At the end of the Wisconsin Glacial epoch about 14,000 to 15,000 years ago, a large chunk of ice remained buried at this location as the ice retreated northward. When the ice melted, the clay soil sealed the basins. [4]

Precipitation and runoff from higher ground around the bog are the only water sources. There is no stream or groundwater inflow or outflow. Evaporation from the open water and plants is the only loss of moisture. A bog differs from swamps, marshes, and ponds because of this limited exchange of water. The water in the bog is stagnant, acidic, and nutrient-poor. [5]

Plants

Part of the floating mat of vegetation. Drosera rotundifolia PinhookBog(3).jpg
Part of the floating mat of vegetation.

The outstanding feature of Pinhook Bog is the tree-covered mat of sphagnum moss. Sphagnum moss is a stringy, delicate moss of a light-green color. The mat floats on top of the water and can become 3 to 6 feet (0.91 to 1.83 m) thick, yet it can have a pocket only a few inches thick in the middle. As the mat thickens, larger and larger plants take root and grow. Under the mat a peat bed develops. The acidic water slows the decay of the sphagnum moss and other plants. With time, the peat may fill the bog from the mat to the bottom. As the moisture becomes less acidic, typical land plants take root and the bog disappears. [5]

Orchids:

Carnivorous plants: [6]

Poison sumac is prevalent in the bog area, particularly around the outer edge, the '"moat". It is recognized by its compound leaves of seven to thirteen leaflets. The leaflets have smooth edges and are pointed. [7]

Tamarack or American larch is an unusual tree for northwest Indiana. It is a conifer, but not an evergreen. It drops its leaves in the winter. As fall approaches, the needles turn golden until they fall off. [5]

Blueberry and cranberry shrubs are common along the margins. [5] Rusty cotton grass farther down the trail flourishes.

Access

The Pinhook Bog is open for specially scheduled ranger-guided tours and for infrequent open houses. Starting at the parking lot off Wozniak Road, a leisurely trail of about 12 mile (0.80 km) leads through the woods to the entrance to the bog, which is gated and locked during non-tour hours. Within the bog, one can walk along a plastic boardwalk which is about 14 mile (0.40 km) long.[ citation needed ]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Drosera capillaris</i> Species of carnivorous plant native to subtropical to tropical North and South America

Drosera capillaris, also known as the pink sundew, is a species of carnivorous plant belonging to the family Droseraceae. It is native to the southern United States, the Greater Antilles, wastern and southern Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. It is listed as vulnerable in the US state of Virginia, and critically imperiled in Arkansas, Maryland, and Tennessee.

<i>Drosera rotundifolia</i> Species of flowering plant in the sundew family Droseraceae

Drosera rotundifolia, the round-leaved sundew, roundleaf sundew, or common sundew, is a carnivorous species of flowering plant that grows in bogs, marshes and fens. One of the most widespread sundew species, it has a circumboreal distribution, being found in all of northern Europe, much of Siberia, large parts of northern North America, Korea and Japan but is also found as far south as California, Mississippi and Alabama in the United States of America and in New Guinea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cranberry Glades</span>

Cranberry Glades — also known simply as The Glades — are a cluster of five small, boreal-type bogs in southwestern Pocahontas County, West Virginia, United States. This area, high in the Allegheny Mountains at about 3,400 feet (1,000 m), is protected as the Cranberry Glades Botanical Area, part of the Monongahela National Forest. This site is the headwaters of the Cranberry River, a popular trout stream, and is adjacent to the nearly 50,000-acre (200 km2) Cranberry Wilderness.

<i>Drosera anglica</i> Species of carnivorous flowering plant in the family Droseraceae

Drosera anglica, commonly known as the English sundew or great sundew, is a carnivorous flowering plant species belonging to the sundew family Droseraceae. It is a temperate species with a circumboreal range, although it does occur as far south as Japan, southern Europe, and the island of Kauai in Hawaii, where it grows as a tropical sundew. It is thought to originate from an amphidiploid hybrid of D. rotundifolia and D. linearis, meaning that a sterile hybrid between these two species doubled its chromosomes to produce fertile progeny which stabilized into the current D. anglica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tannersville Cranberry Bog</span>

The Tannersville Cranberry Bog or Cranberry Swamp is a sphagnum bog on the Cranberry Creek in Tannersville, Pennsylvania. It is the southernmost boreal bog east of the Mississippi River, containing many black spruce and tamarack trees at the southern limit of their ranges. Technically, it can be classed as an acid fen, as it receives some groundwater flow. The site was designated a National Natural Landmark in December 1974. It was purchased by The Nature Conservancy and the Conservation and Research Foundation in 1957. Like many bogs, its terrain presents an image of solidity, but a liquid mass of decaying peat lies beneath a six-inch (152 mm) layer of sphagnum and a network of supporting tree roots. However, this bog may be viewed from a floating walkway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cowles Bog</span> Wetland complex in Indiana, US

Cowles Bog is a 4,000-year-old wetland complex in Indiana Dunes National Park, near Chesterton, Indiana. It is named for Henry Chandler Cowles who did his pioneering work in ecology and ecological succession here. His work brought international attention to the area which led to efforts to preserve the Indiana Dunes. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1965. It contains bog, fen, marsh, wet meadow, swamp, and pond habitats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volo Bog State Natural Area</span> State park in Illinois, USA

Volo Bog State Natural Area is a nature reserve in Illinois, United States, preserving Volo Bog. The bog was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1973 as the only remaining open-water quaking bog in Illinois. The site also contains woodlands, savanna, marshes, prairie restoration areas, shrubland and old fields. Maintained by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the site is located about a mile west of U.S. Route 12 between the towns of Volo and Fox Lake, Illinois.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mendon Ponds Park</span>

Mendon Ponds Park is a county park located southeast of Rochester, New York within the suburban towns of Mendon and Pittsford. At over 2,500 acres (10 km2), it is the largest park in Monroe County. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1967 in recognition of its unique glacial geology. Monroe County acquired the first 1,400 acres of the park in 1928 for $185,000 (USD).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carnivorous plant</span> Plants that consume animals

Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans, typically insects and other arthropods, and occasionally small mammals and birds. They still generate all of their energy from photosynthesis. They have adapted to grow in places where the soil is thin or poor in nutrients, especially nitrogen, such as acidic bogs. They can be found on all continents except Antarctica, as well as many Pacific islands. In 1875, Charles Darwin published Insectivorous Plants, the first treatise to recognize the significance of carnivory in plants, describing years of painstaking research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sifton Bog</span>

The Sifton Bog Environmentally Significant Area is a wetland jointly administered by the city of London, Ontario and the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority. It is located west of Hyde Park Road and south of Oxford Street inside the city limits of London, Southern Ontario, Canada. It is a Class 2 provincially significant wetland.

<i>Cypripedium arietinum</i> Species of flowering plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae

Cypripedium arietinum, the ram's head lady's slipper, is a rare orchid that grows in lightly shaded areas with calcareous soils. It is characteristic of the alvars around the Great Lakes in North America, as well as in New England. In Canada, it is found from Quebec to Saskatchewan, plus an isolated population in Nova Scotia, where it grows on gypsum based soils, 330 km away from the nearest population in Maine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abbotts Moss Nature Reserve</span> Nature reserve in Cheshire, England

Abbotts Moss is a 12-hectare (30-acre) nature reserve near Delamere Forest, northwest of Winsford, Cheshire. It is managed by the Cheshire Wildlife Trust under lease from the Forestry Commission and lies within a larger Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The reserve is south of the A556 road near Sandiway and is divided in two by the Whitegate Way, a former railway line now used as a footpath and bridleway.

A cataract bog is a rare ecological community formed where a permanent stream flows over a granite outcropping. The sheeting of water keeps the edges of the rock wet without eroding the soil; in this precarious location no tree or large shrub can maintain a roothold. The result is a narrow, permanently wet, sunny habitat.

Singer Lake Bog is a 344-acre nature preserve in the U.S. state of Ohio. It is owned by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. With more than fifty acres of leatherleaf bog, it is the largest of its kind in the state of Ohio. Within the nature preserve is a five acre kettle lake bog that features tamarack, poison sumac, cranberries, northern purple pitcher plant, round-leaved sundew and sphagnum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Tern Bog State Natural Area</span> State Natural Area in Wisconsin

Black Tern Bog State Natural Area is a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources-designated State Natural Area featuring 20 acres of quaking sphagnum bog surrounding two small seepage lakes situated in a pitted outwash plain. The bog is rich in plant species, such as sundews, pitcher plant, bogbean, and bog rosemary, as well as three species of bog orchids: swamp pink, grass pink, and rose pogonia. The state-endangered bog rush also grows here. Birds known to nest here include black tern, American bittern, killdeer, and mallards.

<i>Isotria verticillata</i> Species of orchid

Isotria verticillata, commonly known as the large whorled pogonia and purple fiveleaf orchid, is an orchid species native to eastern North America.

Tamarack Swamp Natural Area is a boreal (non-glacial) bog in Sproul State Forest, in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is named for the tamarack tree that is common in the surrounding wetland. Numerous other species of plants and animals also inhabit the wetland. The protected natural area consists of 267 acres within the larger Tamarack Swamp complex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richmond Nature Park</span>

The Richmond Nature Park is a bog-forest nature park located in the city of Richmond, British Columbia. The Richmond Nature Park covers 200 acres of the raised peat bog habitat that has previously covered large sections of Lulu Island. The ever-changing environment of the Richmond Nature Park is also dominated by a wet, spongy land of mosses, heath shrubs, and shrub-like trees. The park offers four walking trails that allows visitors to walk amongst the peat bog, the forest, and the pond habitat, and the opportunity to explore the wildlife of the plants and animals within the bog-forest. The Richmond Nature Park Society works on behalf of the Richmond Nature Park as a non-for-profit organization that aims in providing natural history education opportunities for visitors and residents, and through programs and events that promote the natural history of the nature park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brokenhead Wetland Ecological Reserve</span> Protected area in Manitoba, Canada

Brokenhead Wetland Ecological Reserve is an ecological reserve northeast of Scanterbury, Manitoba, Canada. It was established in 2005 under the Manitoba Ecological Reserves Act. It is 12.4 square kilometres (4.8 sq mi) in size.

References

  1. Smith, S. & Mark, S. (2006). Alice Gray, Dorothy Buell, and Naomi Svihla: Preservationists of Ogden Dunes. The South Shore Journal, 1. "South Shore Journal - Alice Gray, Dorothy Buell, and Naomi Svihla: Preservationists of Ogden Dunes". Archived from the original on September 13, 2012. Retrieved June 11, 2012.
  2. 1 2 Smith, S. & Mark, S. (2009). The Historical Roots of the Nature Conservancy in the Northwest Indiana/Chicagoland Region: From Science to Preservation. The South Shore Journal, 3. "South Shore Journal - the Historical Roots of the Nature Conservancy in the Northwest Indiana/Chicagoland Region: From Science to Preservation". Archived from the original on January 1, 2016. Retrieved November 22, 2015.
  3. Smith, S. & Mark, S. (2007). The cultural impact of a museum in a small community: The Hour Glass of Ogden Dunes. The South Shore Journal, 2. "South Shore Journal - the Cultural Impact of a Museum in a Small Community: The Hour Glass in Ogden Dunes". Archived from the original on November 30, 2012. Retrieved June 11, 2012.
  4. Indiana Dunes Education, National Park Service, Porter, Indiana, 2006
  5. 1 2 3 4 1997, Bud Polk
  6. Daniel, Glenda; Dune Country, A Hiker's Guide to the Indiana Dunes; Illustrated by Carol Lerner; Swallow Press; Chicago, Illinois; 1984, pg 121
  7. Daniel, pg 119

Bibliography