New London Conservation Commission

PHILBRICK-CRICENTI BOG

FROM POND TO BOG IN 10,000 YEARS

STAY ON THE WALK
-for your safety
-to preserve the bog mat

UNSAFE FOR DOGS

Trail Guide (with numbered signs)

ACCESS PATH (0-5)

0) Where you stand was the shore of a 25 acre pond at the end of the glacial period. Arctic plants growing here have gradually spread over the surface of the water.

1) You are 5 feet above the former lake bottom on gravel resting on the roots of royal ferns and red maples.

2) Here the water is more acidic and the cinnamon ferns are replacing the royal ferns.

3) As you walk these paths, stop and listen. One advantage of the stunted vegetation in a bog is the ability to see the birds. One of the common songs heard here is the “Old Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody” of the White Throated Sparrow.

4) Meet the bog makers – the (sphagnum or peat) moss which can float on water and the grass-like sedge with binding roots. Together they were first to grow out over the water.

5) Beside the paths the tamaracks grow vigorously nourished by decaying leaves. (Notice how they are out on the bog mat).

PEEK HOLE LOOP (6-9)

6) This is the open bog mat with bonsai-like trees. Many of these small black spruce are more than 60 years old, dwarfed by lack of nutrients in the mat or acid water.

7) Acidic water creates an abiotic environment where things do not decay. The moss below the living layer becomes brown peat. A bog is the source of peat sold commercially for garden use.

8) The official depth is 20 feet. Pull pole out then please replace it.

9) The black spruce and tamaracks here are well established and are growing on the bog mat.

TUNDRA GARDEN LOOP (10-13)

10) Beside the path are the plants shown on the map page.

11) The blue-green shrub is bog rosemary that grows well in this environment and blooms in the spring.

12) The leatherleaf covering large areas to your right offers no support. STAY ON THE WALK

13) Pitcher plants, abundant here, may use the nutrients from insects drowned in their leaves.

QUAKING LOOP (14-17)

14) Beyond here, in the mid-1800s, men fished from boats on open water. That mat here is relatively thin!

15) Good quaking here. STAY ON THE WALK

16) As you approach the old lake shore notice that the woodland trees are advancing over the mat. They will someday make a boggy woodland here.

17) The return to the bog is over a log bound by the roots of young trees growing on it.

BOG PERIL LOOP (18-21)

18) Water long trapped below the mat surfaces here and drains into Murray Pond. The acidity of the water (pH 4.5) is characteristic of such a bog.

19) Ahead is a bit of tundra such as you might see in the Arctic.

20) Those light green patches are only thin skims of moss and sedge. Below them are remains of cows, deer and at least one horse. STAY ON THE WALK

21) Time was when this shaded wood was an open sunlit bog. Many of the fallen trees were a result of the 1998 ice-storm.

Come again!

This bog walk is here because of the concerned assistance of the Cricenti famiy, the Philbrick family, the James Cleveland family, the Heritage Preservation and Recreation Commission (Federal), and the New London Conservation Commission.

A map of all the trails maintained by the New London Conservation Commission is available on this web site and from the Town Office, the Information Booth, the Tracy Library, Morgan Hill Bookstore, and Village Sports.