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Appalachian Voice Archive

NC=E2=80=99s Mountain Bogs Show Amazing=20 Diversity

By Kirk Ross=20

It=E2=80=99s been a long day in the field, but sitting around a = kitchen table=20 strewn with plants, bags of soil and books, N.C. State researcher = Brenda=20 Wichmann and Misty Franklin, botanist with the North Carolina = Natural=20 Heritage Program, still have a few bags of specimens to work = through. This=20 is the end of the daily cycle =E2=80=94 identifying and keying out = the plants,=20 doing the paper work and getting them in the plant press.

=E2=80=9COK, here we go,=E2=80=9D Wichmann says. She grabs a = plant out of the bag and=20 starts unfolding its leaves while Franklin prepares the notation = on the=20 pages it=E2=80=99ll be pressed between.

Wichmann=E2=80=99s in Boone, three-quarters of her way through = a summer odyssey=20 to visit and plot out the plant communities in roughly 70 mountain = bogs in=20 North Carolina. She=E2=80=99s thankful to be house-sitting this = week and not in a=20 hotel. The place has DSL, too. So the last thing on the list is to = print=20 out a set of satellite shots of the next day=E2=80=99s = work=E2=80=94Sugar Mountain Bog.=20 Franklin, up to assist with the survey work for a few days, is = anxious to=20 get a first-hand look at Sugar Mountain, which along with nearby = Pineola=20 Bog form the state=E2=80=99s new Mountain Bog Natural Area, a = protected site=20 established this summer by the North Carolina legislature.

It=E2=80=99s an indication of the growing recognition of the = unique and diverse=20 bog habitats. Because they=E2=80=99re relatively flat, wet areas = and often at high=20 elevations=E2=80=94Sugar Mountain Bog is way up at 4200 = feet=E2=80=94southern Appalachian=20 bogs are home to some of the mountains=E2=80=99 rarest plant = communities. The=20 recently passed legislation that put the two bogs under state = stewardship=20 noted that unique lilies and threatened species like the purple = leaf=20 willowherb, along with the bog rose and bog fern, are within their = soggy=20 confines.

A day in the bogs

Sugar Mountain Bog, not far from Linville and Grandfather = Mountain, is=20 actually a cluster of three bogs according to the satellite = imagery, and=20 Wichmann plans to study all three. After hiking up a dirt road = passed an=20 old homesite, Wichmann and Franklin head up to check out a seep = full of=20 little sundews, then over to the edge of the rhododendron hell = that=20 surrounds the bog. =E2=80=9CThis is a class two or three,=E2=80=9D = Franklin says=E2=80=94shorthand=20 for annoying and thick, but no rough inclines. Unless = you=E2=80=99re under 5=E2=80=99,=20 though, you have to crawl for some of it and with a backpack full = of tools=20 and gear it is not an easy endeavor at all.
Then things get = wet and=20 sloshy and the hummocks and raised clumps of sphagnum become = important=20 stepping-stones. At what accounts for a clearing, the backpacks = come off=20 and the notebooks and clipboards come out. Wichmann stands on a = high=20 hummock and looks over a tall stand of spiraea alba peppered with = the=20 occasional bog rose and starts scouting out a place to lay the = plot.

=E2=80=9CThis is definitely shrubby,=E2=80=9D she says. Part of = her research is to get=20 a better handle on distinctive types of bogs. Two main types are = shrub and=20 herbaceous. Sugar Mountain is shrubby as all get out.

The two scientists grab their transect lines and start = crunching=20 through the thick stalks trying to keep lines straight and marking = out a=20 ten meter by ten meter plot. Visibility is about two feet at best = and they=20 run the lines through a tunnel in the spiraea. Once the plot is = set, they=20 start working in from the corners, logging the frequency of = species in=20 certain areas, measuring the size of the shrubs and any trees or = saplings.=20 It=E2=80=99s a long, painstaking process, thanks in part to the = diversity of the=20 bog, and made longer and more difficult by the terrain. They trade = off=20 note taking and plant ID work in an exchange conducted in a blend = of=20 English and botanical Latin. Plants go in the bag, then, the soil = auger=20 comes out and Wichmann heads for a central part of the plot. =
=E2=80=9CWait=20 till you hear this,=E2=80=9D Franklin says.

A few minutes later Wichmann has one arm digging deep into the = wet,=20 black muck of the bog. She shouts descriptions of the soils to = Franklin=20 and, if she finds a rock, extracts it for examination making a = sound=20 suitable for a horror movie soundtrack.

=E2=80=9CThe layering is very important, I think,=E2=80=9D = Wichmann says, sifting a=20 handful of muck through her fingers. =E2=80=9CThey=E2=80=99re very = different in each bog.=20 I think there=E2=80=99s going to be some sort of interesting = correlation there.=E2=80=9D=20
She takes the auger to the muck and draws her soil samples. = It=E2=80=99s the=20 last part of the on-site work for the day=E2=80=94except getting = through the hell=20 again and back to the truck.

Tater Hill=E2=80=99s diversity

The next bog on the agenda is a lot more well-known and a lot = easier to=20 get around in. Tater Hill Bog, managed by Appalachian State = University,=20 has more of an open pasture feel=E2=80=94albeit a rather wet one. = It is home to=20 the rare Gray=E2=80=99s lily, the northern green orchid and the = only protected=20 population of long-stalked holly in the state. Near West = Jefferson, it is=20 completely surrounded by a growing number of residential = developments.=20 While climate change may be one threat to bogs, because they are = by nature=20 flat places in the mountains, they can be desirable sites for = building=20 sites.

After surveying the area including a look over the impact a = population=20 of beavers has had in several areas, Franklin and Wichmann stake = out=20 another plot and get to work. A few hours into it, and Wichmann is = amazed=20 by the variety they=E2=80=99re finding.

=E2=80=9CThis may take the diversity record,=E2=80=9D she = says=E2=80=94a fact she all but=20 confirms that night while pressing the specimens.

Today, Wichmann is back at N.C. State working alongside other = graduate=20 students back from a summer of fieldwork. It was an exhausting = process and=20 she put a lot of miles on her truck, but it was worth it. = She=E2=80=99s developed=20 a much keener eye for spotting bog sites and suspects there are = many more=20 than the few hundred so far identified. And, thanks to the plants, = soils=20 and data gathered, researchers will have a much better = understanding of=20 what lives in the rare, often hidden wetlands of the southern=20 Appalachians.

Kirk Ross can be reached at rossreport@bellsouth.net =

Posted by Editor = in =E2=80=A2 Dece= mber,=20 2006 =E2=80=A2 Fores= t=20 Restoration =E2=80=A2 Scien= ce=20 and Nature
(0) Comments=20 =E2=80=A2 Back=20 to archive

Page 1 of 1 = pages=20

Photos

=20

Misty Franklin and Brenda Wichmann catalog plants in the = Sugar=20 Mountain bog. =