The South Taylor Labrador Tea Geocache Traditional Cache
The South Taylor Labrador Tea Geocache
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Welcome to the South Taylor Bog!
Welcome to the South Taylor Labrador Tea Geocache!
The black spruce – sphagnum bog you now find yourself in is a good example of a typical South Peace bog. These bogs are fairly common, and dot the Boreal Plains; sometimes they form complexes with other types of wetlands, known as the muskeg. Bogs form in depressional areas, on poorly drained fine-textured soils —a legacy of the ice age.
By definition a bog is a nutrient-poor, sphagnum-dominated wetland in which the rate of accumulation outpaces the rate of decomposition. This creates a glut of dead organic matter, which as it decomposes releases acids. Because they often occur in depressional areas there is no outflow of water to remove these acids —concentrating them over time. The combined effects of acidification, saturation and cool soil temperatures (permafrost often underlies bogs a little further north of here) slow the rate of decomposition, promoting the formation of peat.
You may notice that there is quite a bit of tamarack in parts of this bog. Although I am speculating a bit, I will attempt to explain some of the successional dynamics going on that account for the distribution of trees and shrubs that you see —why parts of this bog are not straight black spruce — sphagnum as one might expect.
Following a fire, tamarack seeds are usually the first tree to germinate on the exposed burnt organic soils and sphagnum peat. Tamaracks endure the wet, acidic peatlands soils better than other species, and in the absence of competing vegetation thrive during this pioneer stage. However, as tamaracks are so shade intolerant, they are not able to regenerate very successfully underneath any sort of canopy (including their own). Consequently, stands composed of tamarack are frequently even aged (this doesn’t mean that all the tamarack you see all germinated in the same year, however on a time scale relevant to trees they are all part of the same cohort). As peat consolidation progresses, birch, alder and white spruce may be able to colonize drier tamarack habitat (you will be able to observe this in other parts of the bog. Note in these spots that tamarack is absent amongst the seedlings). Eventually, these species will succeed the tamarack to form a seral forest that itself will eventually give way to a climax black spruce community through the process of paludification. However, some spots of the bog are just too wet to allow for birch and white spruce to succeed tamarack. These areas will progress directly to black spruce – sphagnum type communities.
Here is a partial list of the some of the plants that you may encounter in the South Taylor Bog:
Black Spruce
Tamarack
Speckled Alder
Swamp Birch
Labrador Tea (of course!)
Palmate Coltsfoot
Arrowleaved Coltsfoot
Lingonberry
Blueberries
Cloud Berries
Single Delight
Calypso Orchids
Rein-Orchids
Horsetails
Sphagnum Mosses
A word of caution, bogs in northern Canada are often inhabited by Wihtikows. Wihtikows are the spirits of men, whom during times of famine were driven mad and turned to cannibalism. Driven by their people into bogs and the muskeg, these abominations subsist on those foolish enough to venture into their dominions of decay. A Wihtikow is known to inhabit the South Taylor Bog, so one should be cautious —lest the Wihtikow discover the location of the cache you seek...
For more information on the remarkable sphagnum mosses, bogs, permafrost, the Boreal Forest, Wihtikows and all kinds of other interesting things please check out the book Canada’s Boreal Forest by J. David Henry.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Orjner gur thneqvna bs gur pnpur!
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