Camosun Bog

May 20, 2020

Camosun Bog

Camosun Bog

Over twelve thousand years ago, the place we know as Vancouver B.C. was completely covered by ice. The ice then melted ten thousand years ago and revealed a scarred landscape. The lake then became a swamp, and the dead plants from the swamp blocked the sources of fresh water and sediment. When dead plants decayed, useable oxygen was used up. This created perfect conditions for a bog.

Sphagnum Moss
http://camosunblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/sphagnum-moss.html

The keystone species of a bog is known as the Sphagnum moss, and it is shown in the picture above. Sphagnum moss is sometimes called peat moss, and it is essential to the bog ecosystem. Without Sphagnum, the bog wouldn’t exist, because it maintains wet and acidic conditions favored by bog plants. It is capable of swallowing water and injecting hydrogen ions into its surroundings, producing an acidic environment.

Peat is essentially dead Sphagnum moss. Sphagnum can grow on top of the dead sphagnum, only multiplying and multiplying on each other. Sphagnum does not decay, so Sphagnum for thousands of years ago still retains its structural integrity. Digging through peat in a bog is like digging through time, because artifacts found in the bog will not decay, due to the low oxygen, high acidic conditions, and high tannin content.

The bog is considered a carbon sink because of its slow rate of delay. It helps Vancouver fight against global warming, because the bog converts carbon dioxide to peat, and the peat does not release its carbon until it slowly decays over thousands of years. This is why the Bog has coined the name the “Lungs of the Lower Mainland” as they essentially take in all bad fumes.

The inhabitants of Musqueam have been using the Camosun Bog for thousands of years, going back 4000 years ago. Camosun bog has become a centre of culture, tradition and medicine for the Musqueam.

In 1929, the development of the city nearly destroyed Camosun, due to water drains being installed, causing the water levels to reduce, and destroying the Sphagnum moss. The loss of nutrients caused native bog plants to be outcompeted by invasive ones. Hemlock trees created a forest in the bog for 2000 years, and those trees would easily fall over in the case of a windstorm.

Here are a few plants you could expect to see at Camosun Bog.