Where the Wild Things Are Bog Pro-D on Octobe 24, 2014!!!

Register now to our outdoor Pro-D open to teachers, informal educators, urbanists, students.  If you're curious about bogs come and jump on a bog trampoline, taste labrador tea and learn 10 bog species guaranteed!

Link to registration page here

Join the Crazy Boggers, Metro Van Park Interpreters and VSB teachers for a journey to an enchanting urban bog!

Cloudberry leaves

Our sundews are still around for a few more weeks before the cold weather takes them out

Research in the Bog

Camosun bog was featured in the Regional Science Fair last year by young scientists Vicky and Hannah who are crazy boggers: Read about their findings below!

Peat Bogs: Contributors or Inhibitors of the Greenhouse Gas Effect?

Hypothesis

If the temperature in Vancouver increases, the bogs will release more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Purpose

The ultimate goal of this experiment was to see if increased temperature would result in bogs releasing more CO₂ than they absorb. We also want to inform visitors of the potential role of bogs as sources of CO₂. It is worrying that the majority of estimates for future temperature increase do not account for all of the possible release of Greenhouse Gases (CO₂ and CH₄) through natural processes. Many “carbon sinks” are releasers of Greenhouse Gases, with peat bogs in the lead^[1]. Even though peat bogs only cover around 3% of the earth’s surface, they store approximately 740 gigatons of carbon^[2]. For comparison, this is the equivalent to up to 65 years’ worth of the global carbon emission from fossil-fuels^[2]. It is crucial for people to realize the severity of climate change and the need for something to be done. There are countless contributors to climate change bursting forth in a chain reaction.

Human activity is the cause of the dramatic increase of atmospheric CO₂ in recent years. It is clear that the release of CO₂ and other Greenhouse Gases is having profound effects on plants, animals, and humans alike. However, many people do not realize that increasing global temperatures may disrupt the natural processes in which CO₂ is recycled.

CO₂ release from nature wouldn’t pose any threat under normal conditions. Unfortunately, increasing global temperatures may be causing our bogs to release CO₂ faster than they can absorb it.  For that reason, the objective of this experiment is to find out if the release of CO₂ by bogs in Vancouver is correlated with increasing temperatures expected with global warming. If increasing temperatures do in fact cause bogs to release CO₂, and the release of CO₂ from bogs does indeed cause temperatures to increase, we have a vicious cycle on our hands.

CBRG outreach at John Hendry Park

Nine crazy boggers visited John Hendry Park to do some bog restoration last week.

Another Glorious day in the bog...

A day in the bog's like a day on the farm...
We moved a huge pile of invasive plants and piled them into the bin. Enjoyed tea and treats after. Congratulations crazy boggers! Many thanks to Metro Van.

Laurence Brown was featured in an Interview describing the bog restoration

Work Party

Last saturday we lowered the peat level and removed branches to get an area ready for planting. Crazy boggers of all ages worked together and then took tea, surrounded by fragrant labrador tea blossoms, sundew and arctic starflower. Tree frog tadpoles swam under our tea party. Come out and join us next week for Bin Day.

Pacific Treefrog tadpoles swimming in Devil's Hole

tree frogs had been singing to each other all spring and now tadpoles are swimming around!

Drosera Rotundifolia, or sundew,are back in the bog!

What do you call an animal that only eats plants? And what do you call a plant that will only eat animals?
Drosera Rotundifolia is emerging now in the bog.  It's getting ready to devour mosquitos and other small insects.

Bunchberry, Labrador Tea and Arctic Starflower are blooming in the bog

bunchberry

labrador tea, traditional medicine for the Musqueam people

rare arctic starflower prefers the low nutrient environments of  bogs at this latitude.

Bin day!! June 7

Come one come all!  We are having yet another Bin day on June 7.  We need an army of volunteers to move branches, stumps, bushes from the invasive species pile into the big bin.  Come and join us.  Bring a tea mug and garden gloves! Click here for a map to get to Camosun bog

Slaying stumps and moving monster roots!

Hope to see as many as possible this Saturday even though it is a long weekend. We are almost finished removing all the big roots from the South East corner of the bog. We will concentrate on removing the nutrient rich top soil,exposing the peat and getting the area ready for planting. The attached pictures show the crews who finally removed the "monster root". Great job.

Regards.

Gerry

Birdsong at the edge of the bog

Birds in the hemlock forest at the bog's edge. The sounds are lovely during our work party

Tree frogs in the bog!!!

Tree frogs sang a chorus during our work party while we cleared salal, stumps and polytrichum.  We could hear them sing loudly, but they remained hidden from view.

Blossoming vacciniums

Blueberry flowers

Huckleberry buds are under these leaves

More blueberries. Each of these pink flowers will become a blueberry for summer snacking during work parties!

Sphagnum of Vancouver

Back in 2008, I took a course at UBC in bryology; the scientific study of mosses and liverworts. As my term project, I went to Camosun Bog and sampled as many different species of Sphagnum moss as I could detect. At that time, I could identify S. capillifolium, S. squarrosum, S. papillosum and S. palustre without looking at microscopic characters. Inspired by the microscopic key we used in class to identify liverworts, the purpose of my term project was to create an online pictoral key to the Sphagnum moss species present in Camosun Bog. Sadly, due to time constraints, the project was never completed. I would like to congratulate Prof. Shona Ellis and her Biol 321 class for returning to the bog and bringing the project to (near) completion.

This is her Sphagnum of Vancouver website: http://blogs.ubc.ca/sphagnum/

You can find the microscopic key and a list of Sphagnum species in Camosun Bog. I have noticed that while the online key appears complete, the final descriptions of each species is incomplete. The hard copy does not appear complete. However, if you need the final descriptions to each species, there is a link to the Bryophyte Flora of North America (which includes more species and a key, but the key does not include pictures).

To use the key, you need a light microscope. The first character is the shape of the cells on the outside of the stem. Other characters are the shape of the leaves and the shape of the cells in a transverse cross section of the leaf. It matters whether you look at a stem leaf or a branch leaf.

This website highlights and beauty and diversity of Sphagnum mosses. I look forward to seeing the completion of this website!

CBRG AGM

Some artifacts found in the bog on display during our AGM. Lots of hockey pucks fell into the bog over the years.

Sunlit bog

Our bog is framed by Hemlocks which crept in through secondary succession. They are rooted in soil that rests on layers of peat. This picture was taken Jan 25 by Lawrence Brown.

We caught one this big...

Stumps are removed as part of the restoration process. Decaying stumps add unwelcome nutrients to the abiotic conditions of a peat bog. It's hard work and very satisfying when a stump is finally extracted!

Misty work party