#: locale=en
## Tour
### Description
### Title
tour.name = Ponemah Bog VFT
## Skin
### Button
Button_3E12C861_2D24_2998_41BF_E1079949D667.label = Directions
Button_3E12C861_2D24_2998_41BF_E1079949D667.pressedLabel = Close
Button_3EA85E6C_2D24_6668_4186_2BD4FD5A7DB1.label = Additional Resources
Button_3EA85E6C_2D24_6668_4186_2BD4FD5A7DB1.pressedLabel = Close
Button_3F9874D5_2D2C_3AB8_41A5_955D229916E3.label = Get Involved
Button_3F9874D5_2D2C_3AB8_41A5_955D229916E3.pressedLabel = Close
Button_5743FACC_6391_5264_41C5_083A10A64414.label = Welcome
Button_5743FACC_6391_5264_41C5_083A10A64414.pressedLabel = Close
Button_7525950A_6070_D7EC_41D9_F22DAA3A782A.label = Map
Button_7525950A_6070_D7EC_41D9_F22DAA3A782A.pressedLabel = Close Map
Button_856A00DA_9A81_C913_41D9_D7127EFC98F5.label = History of the Development - LINK
Button_90E41282_B686_C9F3_41DB_FF4C4D0CEFDA.label = New England Wetlands Plant Identification - LINK
Button_91FAD0FB_B682_4911_41D2_BA6C89A04170.label = Ponemah Bog Dragonfly Checklist - LINK
Button_AA30EEE9_B19E_DCF2_41DC_5D0CB813F397.label = Scenes
Button_AA30EEE9_B19E_DCF2_41DC_5D0CB813F397.pressedLabel = Close Scenes
Button_AA5F8DB4_B718_FECB_41D8_0001164F1837.label = Indigenous Wetlands
Button_AA5F8DB4_B718_FECB_41D8_0001164F1837.pressedLabel = Close
Button_AFB1F7F6_9686_7713_41D4_FD13BA441D3A.label = Article on Philbrick-Cricenti Bog - LINK
Button_B9128B90_805F_1356_41B6_6A7DAB817EB2.label = Scientific American; Bogs (1958) - LINK
Button_B9390D6A_805F_17CA_41D7_25C5F6ED0261.label = Reference Book Covers - LINK
Button_BAC00BCB_804B_12CA_41C9_A43F84B27CC9.label = The Life of the Marsh - LINK
### Multiline Text
HTMLText_3CB9157A_2CFC_3B2D_41B6_19BF805E9DB3.html =
HTMLText_4400862C_507F_61D2_41BE_B94E9DFBBC11.html = Additional Resources
Online
• NH Fish & Game Wildlife Non-game endangered species - LINK • How Wetlands Work - LINK • Insectivorous Plants by Charles Darwin (1897) - LINK • Sphagnum Moss: Bog Plant Extrodinaire - LINK • Natural Communities of New Hampshire - LINK • Something Wild: Frozen Wood Frogs Thaw Out - LINK The dry upland forest here is reminiscent of more southern forests of white pines, pitch pines and assorted oaks. These woods are home to the
Whip-poor-will, Eastern Towhee, and White-breasted Nuthatch, among many other bird species. Notice the vernal pools on the left and right before the trail splits. These pools typically dry by the end of summer but, in spring, are
important breeding sites for amphibians, such as wood frogs and spring peepers.
Welcome!
Welcome to Ponemah Bog Wildlife Sanctuary, one of New Hampshire Audubon’s most treasured natural places. This 75-acre sanctuary came under the protection of the organization in 1979 through the generosity of Dr. and Mrs. Homer McMurray and local friends of the sanctuary.
The name “Ponemah'' is an Ojibwe word that refers to the “land of the hereafter” from Longfellow’s “Hiawatha.”
The sanctuary’s primary feature is a three-acre ‘kettlehole’ pond surrounded by a floating sphagnum mat and encircled by upland oak-pine woods. The Bog Trail is mostly narrow bog bridges (boardwalk) with spur trails to four viewing platforms.
Take advantage of this virtual experience to learn more about this unique ecosystem before, or after you visit. And if you are unable to make the trip, this is also an opportunity to experience Ponemah Bog.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Donec quam felis, ultricies nec, pellentesque eu, pretium quis, sem. Nulla consequat massa quis enim. Donec pede justo, fringilla vel, aliquet nec, vulputate eget, arcu. In enim justo, rhoncus ut, imperdiet a, venenatis vitae, justo. Nullam dictum felis eu pede mollis pretium. Integer tincidunt. Cras dapibus.
As the trees become larger and you notice the end of bog bridges, you are returning to higher ground and approaching the parking area. Two picnic tables make a nice place to sit and enjoy a quick snack or meal before heading back off to your lives, and perhaps another chance to reflect upon the beauty of the Bog and the need to protect important places and our natural world.
Luckily, NH Audubon has many opportunities for you to help. From here, you might be interested in joining the Friends of Ponemah Bog, supporting New Hampshire Audubon through a membership gift or a gift of support to the sanctuary, itself. And, there are lots of ways to get involved. For more ideas, see xxxxx.
Ponemah Bog offers sanctuary to many things, including the human spirit. Stop at the Reflection Platform for a moment of peace & tranquility and a moment to reflect on life and nature.
Indigenous Wetlands - Bogs, Swamps, & Marshes
The Pennacook-Abenaki or Aln8bak (Indigenous human beings) have multiple definitions and uses for wetlands. A coniferous swamp or bog is Meskagw and the locative word form is Meskagok. A swampy depression with water, a marsh, primarily a bog pond – not connected with any stream is W8ljebagw and the locative word form is W8ljebagok. An unspecified bog or swamp is called Mskagok.
Indigenous people identify wetlands as “Gardens” highlights the fact that these places are very important land and water spaces to gather and harvest various plants and plant parts for medicines, foods, and materials. This is further supported through etymology, the Abenaki root word for Water is Nebi and Medicine is Nebiz8n and a Medicine Field or Garden is Nebizonkik8n and the locative word form is Nebizonkik8nek.
It is interesting to note that colonial settlers saw no value in wetlands, whereas Indigenous people used them extensively. The importance of these wetlands cannot be overstated. These locations were as important as the many cultivated river intervales where corn, beans, squash, sunchokes, tobacco and other plants were grown. These areas were integral in Indigenous life ways as a food, material, and medicine resource as well as a place to retreat to, to find safe hiding places from colonial aggressions.
It is believed that the Indigenous people discouraged colonial settlers from going into these areas - using stories of man-eating swamp creatures and other unearthly phenomenon. One is about a mythological “Swamp Water” person or creature that is called Mskagwedemos. Another one was about “Ghost Fire” or Chibaiskweda which was marsh gas (methane) fires that were thought to be the ghost of an unburied corpse.
One of the most notable and prominent wetland plants is the Cattail (Arrow Plant) Typha latifolia, in Abenaki Bakwaaskw. The whole plant, including the pollen, is used for various foods, medicines, and fiber materials.
Note: In the Abenaki language the "i" is the strong "e" sound. 8 = Ô or ô = nasal long "o" sound.
Paul W. Pouliot, Sag8mo, Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook – Abenaki People, 2021
The dry upland forest here, with its sandy soils, is reminiscent of more southern forests with pitch pines and assorted oaks, but it also contains the more common Red Maples and White Pines. The forest understory is comprised of Scrub Oak, Blueberry and Lowbush Blueberry, which all serve as other sources of food for the rich diversity of wildlife that inhabits the forest.
Owing to the resulting vegetation, these woods are home to Scarlet Tanager, Eastern Whip-poor-will, and White-breasted Nuthatch, among many other bird species. Eastern Screech-Owl and Barred Owl patrol the forests by night for mice and other rodents that thrive on the abundance of acorns. (Nest boxes are supplied and maintained by volunteers for both of these owl species.)
A variety of mammals, from Weasels and even Black Bear, whichfrequents the upland forest in search of food and shelter.
Notice the vernal pools on the left and right before the trail splits. These pools typically dry by the end of summer, showing only mud and few plants, but in spring are full of water. They serve as important spring (‘vernal’) breeding sites for amphibians like Wood Frogs, Spotted Salamanders, and Spring Peepers.
The surrounding forest is an equally important location for these amphibians, which spend the remainder of the year above - and below - the leaf litter.
As the trees become larger and you notice the end of bog bridges, you are returning to higher ground and approaching the parking area. Two picnic tables make a nice place to sit and enjoy a quick snack or meal before heading back off to your lives, and perhaps another chance to reflect upon the beauty of the Bog and the need to protect important places and our natural world.
Luckily, NH Audubon has many opportunities for you to get involved. From here, you might be interested in joining the Friends of Ponemah Bog, supporting New Hampshire Audubon through a membership gift or a gift of support to the sanctuary, itself. And, there are lots of ways to get involved.
For more ideas, visit us here. Ponemah Bog Wildlife Sanctuary features a three-acre pond surrounded by a floating sphagnum moss mat and encircled by upland oak-pine woods.
This ‘bog’ (actually a poor fen) resulted from the last receding glacier, which left a kettle hole pond in the Souhegan River outwash plain.
Changes in vegetation over the last 12,000 years are recorded in the bog’s layers of peat, which have preserved pollen blown in from the surrounding woods. Peat samples from bogs not only reveal the history of the area in terms of its ancient forests and climates, but also can give quite accurate dates for those forests and climates.
This information is obtained by a method called radiocarbon dating. In this way pollen samples from the bottom of southern New England bogs, for example, have yielded dates for spruce forests some 11,000 to 13,000 years old.
The bog has three carnivorous plant species. On approaching Black spruce platform, get down on hands and knees to search for the tiny sundews
with sticky hairs on the leaf surface which trap insects.
Look for pitcher plants which attract insects to their colorful lips where downward-pointing hairs inside the pitcher cause the insects to slip into the rainwater-filled trap below.
Horned bladderwort is the third carnivorous plant and traps insects in the water.
All three plants transform captured insects into a dose of nitrogen and other nutrients that are otherwise scarce due to the slow rate of decay in the bog’s moss mat.
Biodiversity, short for biological diversity, is a term for the variety of life on Earth. It can refer to the variety of genes in a species, the variety of species in an ecosystem, and the variety of ecosystems in a landscape or region. High biodiversity usually means better environmental health.
The Ponemah Bog Wildlife Sanctuary has a high level of biodiversity when you think of all the species of birds and other animals, plant life, insects, reptiles, amphibians, lichens and fungi that can be found within this kettle hole bog throughout the year.
Due to the abundance of habitat types and the diversity of plant and insect life, wildlife usage of the bog, itself, is quite noticeable. Numerous species of insects, including many unique dragonfly and butterfly species, inhabitat this environment. The insects further draw in a multitude of songbirds including warblers, flycatchers, and many others such as abundant Tree Swallows, Eastern Towhees, and Cedar Waxwings.
Fruiting shrubs and trees add to the bounty of food available to these birds, as well as to numerous mammals which make use of the wetlands for feeding opportunities by both day and night. Raccoon and Red Fox scat is often encountered along the bog bridges. The wildlife is another reason the sensitive habitats are not suitable to domestic dogs and other pets, which change wildlife usage patterns.
Along the edge of the bog pond, look for wading birds such as Great Blue Herons and migratory shorebirds. Mallards, Canada Geese, Wood Ducks and other species of waterfowl stop over to rest and feed on the bog pond and the surrounding vegetation. Raptors are often seen flying overhead or hunting birds and mammals around the bog pond. Reptiles and amphibians are present during the warmer months.
Most often encountered are the numerous Painted Turtles and the occasional Snapping Turtle, along with Green and BullFrogs. A Garter Snake basking along the bog bridges or platforms is not an uncommon sight.
Though a small patch, Ponemah Bog serves as a critical location for so many species and a premier place to observe wildlife and plants in this uncommon natural setting.
The boardwalk marks the shore of an ancient lake. Along the boardwalk is the various foliage of leatherleaf, highbush blueberry, rhodora, and their kin in the heath family. In May, brilliant magenta rhodora flowers are in bloom. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote a short piece about the rhodora, which can be found here, along with some more details.
Sphagnum moss, commonly known as “peat moss”, is the building block of bogs. Without Sphagnum mosses Ponemah Bog would not exist. Bogs have a living surface which is made of a carpet of Sphagnum mosses. This is floating on a thick layer of partially rotted plant material that is soaking wet. This is why when you walk across the bog surface on the bog bridges (boardwalk) some sections feel bouncy or move.
The bog is dominated by sphagnum moss and other specialized plants rooted directly in the moss. Bog water is normally acidic (pH 4-4.5) in large part because sphagnum moss acidifies the water as it withdraws nutrients such as calcium and magnesium. Plants do not rapidly decay in the acidic, oxygen-poor water and great quantities of peat (dark brown, partially decayed sphagnum moss and other once-living materials) accumulate below the living moss as a result.
Sphagnum carpets bogs, holding in moisture and even wicking it up above the water table. Sphagnum mosses can hold up to 20 times their own weight in water. A single Sphagnum plant is very small but has an interesting structure. Attached to the stem are two types of branches – the spreading branches stick out and give the plant structure. The hanging branches are pressed to the stem and help to draw up water. Indigenous peoples used the moss to diaper their babies.
The Life of Sphagnum
Sphagnum mosses grow from spores which are produced in fruiting bodies called capsules. When the spores are ripe, pressure builds up in the capsule until its lid is blown off, sending the spores shooting into the air. The spores grow into a tiny moss plant. As the tip or head of the plant grows upwards, the lower parts of the moss die and become peat. Some Sphagnum plants grow only a few mm each year. Others grow up to 10cm in a year!
As sphagnum moss grows, it can slowly spread into drier conditions, forming larger mires, both raised bogs and blanket bogs. These peat accumulations provide habitat for a wide array of peatland plants, including sedges and heathers, orchids and carnivorous plants.
Plant Life on the Bog
All of the larger plants on the bog are growing on the Sphagnum moss. Some plants such as the Heathers grow on the hummocks of Sphagnum and have to avoid losing water in the summer when the bog dries out a little. Many-headed Bog Cotton grows in the bog pools among the Sphagnum. Their stems are filled with air channels which allows the plant to breathe under the water, similar to snorkeling.
Hidden World
A huge number of tiny microscopic plants and animals live with Sphagnum mosses. A few drops of water squeezed from wet Sphagnum contains hundreds of microscopic species such as desmids, diatoms, algae, cyanobacteria, amoebae, rhizopods, flagellates, ciliates, rotifers (wheel organisms), worms, nematodes (roundworms), flat worms and heliozoans (sun animals). One scientist counted over 32,000 microscopic animals from a Sphagnum moss growing in a bog pool!
Animal Life
The microscopic plant and animal life found in Sphagnum provides food for all other organisms living in the wet bog. These animals include pond skaters, dragonflies, damselflies, caddis flies, mosquitoes, midges, bloodworms, water boatmen, water beetles, water lice, and frogs. The web of wildlife is very special in a bogland.
Fuel
Peat was commercially harvested here in the 1940s and burned as a heat source. The parallel scars of the harvesting trenches near this location are still visible in aerial images (satellite view). Now, soft tufts of cottongrass bob in the breeze in summer.
Fens
Fens, are peat-forming wetlands that receive nutrients from sources other than precipitation: usually from upslope sources through drainage from surrounding mineral soils and from groundwater movement. Fens differ from bogs because they are less acidic and have higher nutrient levels. They are therefore able to support a much more diverse plant and animal community. These systems are often covered by grasses, sedges, rushes, and wildflowers.
Some fens are characterized by parallel ridges of vegetation separated by less productive hollows. The ridges of these patterned fens form perpendicular to the downslope direction of water movement. Over time, peat may build up and separate the fen from its groundwater supply. When this happens, the fen receives fewer nutrients and may become a bog.
The Fen in this area was formed here, when glaciers retreated, leaving a lake, followed by shallow depressions, heading towards the parking area. These low depressions were left with soil over a water saturated gravel/sand base This is evident towards the parking area in the sand/Gravel zone. Over time the water saturated the land forming the fen.
Bogs
Bogs are characterized by a sizable accumulation (>40 cm) of peat and have a relatively high water table with very little inflow or outflow of water or none at all. These sites have very low productivity, contain few mineral nutrients, are very acidic (pH levels of 3–5), and are covered with a layer of floating vegetation.
Many bogs have developed in the depressions created by the melting of the ice during the glacial retreat some 10,000 years ago. Over time, these glacial lakes have amassed large volumes of organic material, gradually converting them into peat bogs.
Other bogs have formed in sloughs and low depressions where there is limited or no drainage.
The bog mat of Ponemah Bog is home to a variety of coniferous trees, both from more northern climes (black spruce and tamarack) as well as southern areas (pitch pine), in addition to the common Eastern white pine. The northern conifers were some of the first trees to occur here after the glaciers receded, but these species have hung on here due to favorable growing conditions and other specialized adaptations.
Today, Ponemah Bog is a living museum, a relict habitat for plants far from home and an outdoor classroom for wetland botany and ecology.
The Tamarack platform focuses on the feathery tamarack or ‘larch.’ Our only native deciduous conifer, it has golden needles in autumn and fresh green foliage in spring. Other common conifers at the bog include the soft 5-needled white pine, the bristly 3-needled pitch pine, and the short-needled black spruce.
Observe the black spruce trees which are distinguished by their short, dark needles. These, and other trees in the bog, are much older than they appear because growth in the saturated, nutrient-poor water is very slow.
Retrace your steps and continue to the Gleason platform for a close view of the ‘Eye of the Bog’. Ducks, geese, sandpipers and other bird species can be found near and on the open water. Lily pads (white blooms in summer) provide basking sites for painted turtles. The bog is home to many species of dragonflies and damselflies. Listen for bullfrogs. Water willow tips arching to the water provide new footholds for sphagnum moss at the pond margin.
Who was Jack Gleason?
This platform is named in honor of Dr. John L. "Jack" Gleason, who served as a long-time volunteer Sanctuary Steward of Ponemah Bog. Jack's enthusiasm for sharing his love for the natural world and his dedication to its care left it a better place for all. You will notice that several of the images in this virtual field trip are credited to Jack.
A short walk from the parking lot will bring you to the raised platform, which was named in honor of a local business which supports the Bog. Ponemah Bog relies on the support of both business partners and private individuals, the organization’s supporters, in order to protect this land and educate the public as a natural classroom.
From this platform, you will be best able to view the bog from above, observing both wildlife and how the habitat changes as you look from the center of the bog out towards the edges and beyond.
Bog formation began during the end of the last ice age, some 12,000 years ago, as receding glaciers left incredibly large chunks of ice behind. Eventually, sediments carried by moving water were deposited around the ice block, and when the ice finally melted away, a depression was left behind, forming what is known as a ‘kettlehole’ pond.
This bog resulted from the last receding glacier, which left a kettle hole pond in the Souhegan River outwash plain. Changes over the past thousands of years have been recorded by the bog itself, which has preserved, in its layers of peat, pollen blown in from the surrounding woods. The moss mat has advanced over the last 6,000 years to gradually fill in the pond with plant remains. The food web is rather simple in bogs: the acid peat locks up most of the nutrients, offering little to support grazing animals and their predators.
Since its formation, Ponemah Bog has been slowly filling in from the outer edges with sediment and decaying vegetation. This has allowed the middle of the pond to remain filled with water, though as you look towards the edges, you will notice how the vegetation changes from wetlands to forest.
Continue to the intersection with the Bypass Trail, turn right, and descend the slope to the boardwalk.
The parking lot features a new (as of 2020) information trailhead kiosk resource (the ‘edu-center’) that offers panels introducing visitors to the Bog, some of which feature bog plants, birds and other wildlife, and a panel describing the formation of a ‘kettlehole’ bog.
Here, groups gather to start field trips in search of bog floral blooms all spring and summer, and in search of birds from spring through fall. NH Audubon and the Nashaway Chapter typically co-sponsor a field trip series of expert-led ‘Bog Walks’.
At the kiosk, you’ll find large natural boulders for sitting and panels low enough to be viewed by most, including the youngest of bog visitors. The kiosk was funded and constructed by individuals and volunteers associated with the ‘Friends of Ponemah Bog’ - the lifeblood of this wildlife sanctuary.
There are picnic tables on the exit of the boardwalk trail for resting and eating snacks and lunches.
Please enter the trail on the left to the front of the kiosk. This leisurely 3/4 mile walk will take about 40-minutes for most abilities.
When you visit the property, bring binoculars and bug spray, but do not apply bug spray until you have a chance to assess the need for it; this is a carry-in-carry-out sanctuary and we do our best to keep it natural and healthy.
Ponemah Bog offers sanctuary to many things, including the human spirit. Stop at the Reflection platform for a moment of peace & tranquility and a moment to reflect on life.
Following the boardwalk out to the left (west), note the lichens - partnerships between fungi and photosynthetic microbes - adorning the bark and twigs of trees and shrubs.
You may also notice mushrooms, many of which are in partnership with the birches and pines, helping them absorb nutrients from the nutrient-poor bog soil.
Low-lying cranberry plants and a variety of shrubs including bog rosemary, pale and sheep laurel, winterberry, mountain holly, and blueberry occur along the boardwalk.
These shrubs are an example of succession as the bog slowly continues to fill in. Here you are in a transition zone between the bog pond from where you came and the upland forest which you are looping back to.