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May 17, 2004 |
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Bog Hunting in Maplecrest
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Every summer we look forward to the arrival of forestry professor Mike Kudish, widely recognized as the foremost expert on the natural and human history of the Catskill Mountain forests. For more than 30 years Mike has traveled down from the Adirondacks to spend his summer collecting field data on forests and bogs in the Catskills, and this summer was no different - well, it's a little bit different this year, in that this is his last summer of field work here before he finally retires from Paul Smith's College and moves down to the Catskills full time. Each summer we make sure to get in a few hikes with Mike; following map and compass with him to botanically interesting places, helping him carry his bog-coring equipment, and learning about our forests.
This past weekend we joined Mike and some other folks on somewhat of a historic and momentous excursion, at least from a Catskill botany standpoint. Two of our other good botanist friends, Dr. Sam Adams and Steve Parisio of the Olive Natural Heritage Society in West Shokan, had told us a story about the fabled 'Maplecrest Bog'. Back in the 1930's, members of the Torry Botanical Society of New York City went on a field trip in Greene County to see this bog. A local farmer knew the location and sent his son out as a guide for the botanists, but they didn't find it. So the farmer himself took the botanists into the forest and helped them find the bog. There the botanists identified a variety of unique and interesting plant species, and reported their findings in the Society journal. Our friends who are keyed in to these types of natural history journals read of the findings, and for years have been interested in finding the bog to look and see if the same plants are still there. But no one seemed to know where the bog was anymore, and it was feared that it had become lost to development or buried under the Batavia Kill's flood control reservoir. Mike Kudish looked for the bog some seven years ago, but could only find a beaver meadow in that general location. Had beavers flooded and destroyed the bog?
This spring however, Mike began to look through a series of aerial photos from different years, and lo and behold, he saw what looked to be the bog, just a few hundred yards west of the beaver meadow he had been to. So an important field trip was on. Our crew met in the early morning this past weekend, drove to the Town of Windham, and bushwhacked our way across State land in search of the lost bog. Mike is an excellent navigator when it comes to using the sun, but the overcast morning required frequent checks of the compass. We tended a bit too far to the north at first, and accidentally came upon the large beaver pond. It was extremely beautiful and interesting in its own right, but we did not linger there. We adjusted our course, and in a few moments were standing at the edge of the Maplecrest Bog.
For the next three or four hours we explored the bog, and the scientists among us identified plants and collected some samples for the herbarium (they have a special permit to collect specimens from the Forest Preserve). Mike Kudish also took a core sample of peat from the bog, and it was a full six meters deep! The most intriguing plants in the bog to us novices were the amazing pitcher plants, which trap water and insects in their cup-shaped leaves. We also enjoyed picking and eating the tart remnants of last fall's cranberry crop. It was a great day for Catskill flora studies, and a lot of interesting plants were identified, but unfortunately the spirit of the visit was dampened by some distressing observations. Small amounts of litter were a bad enough sign that people had been coming to this place and not respecting it, but far worse was the evidence that people had been illegally collecting (i.e. stealing from the Forest Preserve and the people of the State) plants from the bog, probably to sell on the black market. There was a pile of plant pots and holes dug in the peat. As chance would have it, we ran into the local Forest Ranger when we returned to the cars, so we reported what we had seen. It is certainly a shame that there are people out there who would disrespect the Forest Preserve, and our natural heritage thereon, for their own personal profit. At least the bog was still there, after all those thousands of years, for us to study and enjoy.
- Aaron and Chris
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