Earlier this week Linda and I and five other participants were part of a guided tour through the Tannersville Cranberry Bog. The bog is a remnant of the last ice age, when glaciers carved out a basin and dropped seeds from northern latitudes, giving the bog the appearance of a Canadian landscape, right down to the Canadian warbler, which nests in the bog.
The bog was the third purchase by the Nature Conservancy way back in the Fifties. When the Conservancy sees an important ecological tract, the organization simply buys it. I am pleased to be a member.
We saw an amazing variety of plants, including pitcher plants and sundews, both of which eat insects. I finally saw what poison sumac looks like, and we saw two kinds of cranberries. The creek that flows by the side of the bog contains river otters, and the bog itself is home to bears, coyotes, and bobcats. Our guide, who spends quite a bit of time in the bog, has never seen a bobcat, but they are there, since they have been photographed by trail cameras on the boardwalk.
A number of trails on the property are open to the public, but you must be accompanied by a guide to go into the actual bog.
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