Conserving a wild Sphagnum Bog

[hsnepenthes]

While trekking through through the wetlands surrounding the pond near my house I found large amounts of sphagnum moss. The area had very sandy soil, constant water, and lots of sun. It is a beautiful area, except it has been neglected greatly. There is trash everywhere, and people used the area as a dumping ground in the 70's. There are no cps but there are other bog plants like xyris. I am thinking of starting a project to clean it up and to protect it. There are no cps, but there probably were a long time ago. I would like to plant some Purpureas, utrics like inflata, and drosera like filiformis, intermedia, and rotundifolia. I have found various bog plants such as rhexia there. They have even colonized my artificial bog.
UPDATE: I have now done more research on the area and have discovered much more suitable places. There are massive pristine mats of sphagnum scattered along the ground and there is shallow water in between. It is very sunny in most spots and is surrounded by a thick barrier of button bushes, blueberries, and various other shrubs. I will try to take a few good photos, but it is very extensive and is hard to capture in a few photos. We have found no Drosera or anything at all and have checked very thoroughly. I think it would be a good idea to at least put a few seeds of plants from nearby locations. Please give me your feedback.

Post Courtesy of nepenthes99

If you would like to refer to the original post, here is the link

http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php?129900-Sphagnum-bog

 

[F R e N c H 3 z]

Hi hsnepenthes,
Have you contacted your local USDA or DNR? It sounds like the place could use a nice clean up however I would be extremely careful before sowing seeds from 'nearby' locations. Just because likely inhabiting plants were nearby does not necessarily mean that they were present at this particular site; however likely it may appear. Who have you contacted in regards to this project and who are you working with? Please contact Mark Todd (conservation@nasarracenia.org), our head of conservation about this site. Any information and pictures you have may help.Thanks in advance!

Yann
NASC Secretary

 

[hsnepenthes]

Hello Yann

Nepenthes99 and I have several times given this place a thorough clean-up. Recently, we basically crawled the woods and found no signs of drosera, utrics, or anything other than rhexia, xyris, and invasive plants like Rubus. I am working on this project with Jackson (nepenthes99) his contact is interestinginsectivores@yahoo.com

I have spoken with the head of the community and they really don't seem to care about this place. They have just said "It's a beautiful habitat and all but...we can't take suggestions from residents. We need consent from a higher position/organization." So, we are planning on contacting Meadowview Biological Research Station and see if they can help us out.

Also, we have plans to take photos of the bog by next weekend. I will get back to you, and I will also try contacting Mark. Thank you for providing his email id.

My email id is captivatingcarnivores@yahoo.com

Thanks,

Best,
Hari

 

[Ozzy]

I have a few questions. First is your location, I need to know the what cp's are native to the area. How did the trash get there? Is there a lot of foot traffic in the area?

I have no problem with you spreading local seeds. The best rule to use is to think if it's possible for the seeds to spread via birds. If a bird can fly from one site to the other in one jump, it's conceivable it could carry a few seeds with it. Although that's not the only thing that should be considered. One of my biggest concerns is why are there no cp's there now. Did the water quality/levels change? Were they all poached? Were chemicals/fertilizer introduced to the area? Were there never cp's there to begin with?

If there were cp's there whatever happened can still be happening. If the problem hasn't been fixed all your efforts will be in vain anyway. For example, if there are houses around this area, this could be a low point which all the rain runoff gathers. So the water that's present could have drained through the peoples yard carrying all the fertilizer from the yards with it killing the cp's. If this is the cause any cp's you put there will be doomed.

Another consideration that you need to make is will you put the site that you get the plants from to put at this site at risk? You need to weigh the risk of the other side with the reward of the new site.

Last but definitively not least is you need to do your research on your state and local laws that pertain to removing and relocating plants.

If I can be of any assistance to you please let me know.

 

[hsnepenthes]

Hi Ozzy,

Jackson and I both live in central new jersey. I have a few clones of drosera intermedia legally acquired from the pine barrens.
Your point about the rain runoff struck me. I will consult with the head of the community board about what this pond is really composed of. Come to think of it, now I recall a stream of water being drained on one end and recycled on the other. But, our community has many ponds and brooks with water that is most likely all being recycled through the pond we speak of.

I will consult, and get back to you with a few photos if possible.

Thanks,

Best,
Hari

 

[Ozzy]

If you decide that the sundews you have are acceptable and it's legal to introduce these plants to the area I would suggest you do a little study first. Once it's decided to introduce them, I would start by planting only one or two plants. Give them a year to see if they survive.

In the meantime while all the planning and legal issues are being worked out, I would go out to the site get a sample of the soil/sphagnum and see if you can grow cp's in it. I would only use water from the site. This can give you a head start on finding out if the site can support cp's. If you can't get them to grow in the soil and water from the site, there would not be a reason for continuing your reintroduction efforts.

You have my email, you are welcome to talk to me in private about this if you wish. I can also give you my phone number if you want.

 

[lance]

This is usually a difficult matter to deal with because of the fact that the carnivores could become invasive to the plants and that area. Just like ozzy said, if a bird could carry seeds on it's back from a CP location to this site then placing Cps there shouldn't be thought of as invasive due to the fact that others live close by. A few years ago I believe there was a sundew bog that was torn apart by naturalists near San Francisco because the sundews were considered invasive. Meadow view sounds like the perfect place to contact because conserving CP bogs is pretty much what they do.

If the sphagnum is growing on top of the soil then that is a good sign for low PPM water that exists there. Still, I would recommend measuring the PPM levels below the soil to see what you find. Back in the 70's there weren't that many regulations to dumps so many old batteries were thrown into these dumps and their acid seeped deep into the soil. A old dump site near my house recently became the resting place for an old lady and several dogs who had gotten cancer from the deadly water that existed in the ground well. I would also recommend testing the PPM of the incoming brooks and compare it with the PPM readings in the bog. Trash buildup in one or more brooks may be building up the PPM and may need an extensive cleaning. Also, brooks with natural high levels of PPM would indicate that Cps shouldn't be planted there, but should be planted near the low PPM brooks and in the areas where the sphagnum is.

After receiving the proper go ahead and cleanups from the community board, I would recommend making several spots to place a few native sundews or native Sarracenias in certain areas of the bog. This would be good at testing how the plants take a liking to the new area. Checking back on them about once a week would be good to see how they are adapting to the new settings and to make sure that any flower buds don't come up and contaminate the area. The native sundews...etc that are doing good would show the best areas for starting to sow the seeds while the ones doing bad would show where to not sow the seeds. After several generations it should be clear where the Cps feel like growing and where they don't feel like growing, with the hardiest clones approaching the "bad areas" chosen by the native test CP's all those years ago.

And last but not least, make sure you are using native plants and have throughly consulted the proper people/organizations before you go ahead with preparing the area.

Hope this helps!

- Lance

 

[nepenthes99]

Thank you for all of your help, I believe that there were cps there before. The pond is only what remains of what was a vast beautiful environment. The community is fairly new, it was only built in 2001. The only reason that they did not drain and develop the last pond is because it was very deep in the woods and could not be accessed by the heavy machinery. All of the other ponds were drained and built upon. They dug up a few old ponds, ruined them with drainage and fountains, and called the community "Windsor Ponds". Even the remaining pond is rigged with drainage pipes and ditches that lowered its water level and kept it from giving moisture to the surrounding area. While building the community the workers dug up vast areas of forest and sphagnum to put in sewage pipes and electrical lines. They dumped their trash and unused materials like concrete, plastic, and harmful chemicals into the pond and surrounding area. After they were done all that was left was a small area of sphagnum which is suitable for reintroduction of cps. The habitat has recovered a small bit but is still in bad condition. Only one area is untouched. And to make matters worse, parts of the remaining area are places where uncivilized kids run around and smash wine and beer bottles that remain from when the teenagers light a fire in the area and drink and smoke. It is very sad that such a pristine habitat is treated this way.

I will try to do further research on the soil and water content of the area, would an aquarium test kit work? This habitat definitely needs help.