Bogged Down in the Bog

The New York Times published an opinion piece this week screaming the virtues of those soggy, timeless, ecologically-critical places called bogs. Merritt R. Turetsky wrote that "Bogs are a living archive. Because of the bog’s specialized ecology — an oxygen-poor, acidic habitat created in part by the otherworldly mosses that grow there — the decomposition of dead plant material slows to a near halt. Year after year, layer after layer, plant debris accumulate, storing carbon and recording the changing world with it." On a recent visit to Tallin, Estonia, I went with friends on a guided walk through the bog on the Viru Bog Nature Trail. Or, should I say, we waddled and windmilled our way, trying to trudge across the squishy terrain.

Merritt R. Turetsky went on to write, "The first thing any bog teaches you is that the ground cannot be trusted. You step onto a patch of moss that looks solid, only to feel your boot sink into layers of partly decomposed plants, peat that has accumulated over millenniums. Somewhere below lies stable earth, but in a bog, safety is always elusive."