Tom Rankin
Well-known member
On 5/24/6, Laurie, my son David, and I went with Prof. Michael Kudish to visit a bog in the Catskills, which has never been studied before. Dr. Kudish is probably the foremost authority on Catskill flora. (The bog is near Dick Cheney's alternate dwelling - an 'undisclosed location'! 
)
We only had to walk a few minutes from the road to get there, but we were hauling heavy metal poles, sampling equipment, shovels, etc. for studying the bog, so we were glad it wasn't a long walk.
The bog turned out to be about 600' long and 150' wide. It was in a mixed forest. The trees suddenly stop and the bog starts. The types of vegetation change very quickly. Suddenly, there are mosses, ferns, flowers, different types of trees, even different types of birds and animals. We walked around the outside of the bog to measure it (it appeared we were following a deer run most of the way) and noted the inflow and outflow. Dr. Kudish took notes at a furious pace. He cataloged all the plants in the bog and measured trees nearby, noting some old growth as well. We dug down to various depths in the bog and took samples of the peat and silt.
This was an interesting bog in that there was a thick layer of silt over the peat. So, it seemed that there was first a bog, then a lake, then another bog over time. How much time, we will have to wait and see, as Dr. Kudish will be sending samples off to be Radio-Carbon dated.
The whole day in the bog was fascinating. My son is an environmental biology major at SUNY ESF, which is where Dr. Kudish did his undergraduate studies, so they hit it off. Although my son will probably become an ornithologist, I think he really enjoyed being out with an experienced scientist in the field.
After the bog, we drove to another place I had wanted to visit for a long time, ______ Lake. It's on private property, so you can only get near it. We bushwhacked to within about 100 feet, on state land. I took a few pictures from within the trees. What a beautiful Lake!
The flies were out in force all day, but a little DEET kept them at bay!
)We only had to walk a few minutes from the road to get there, but we were hauling heavy metal poles, sampling equipment, shovels, etc. for studying the bog, so we were glad it wasn't a long walk.
The bog turned out to be about 600' long and 150' wide. It was in a mixed forest. The trees suddenly stop and the bog starts. The types of vegetation change very quickly. Suddenly, there are mosses, ferns, flowers, different types of trees, even different types of birds and animals. We walked around the outside of the bog to measure it (it appeared we were following a deer run most of the way) and noted the inflow and outflow. Dr. Kudish took notes at a furious pace. He cataloged all the plants in the bog and measured trees nearby, noting some old growth as well. We dug down to various depths in the bog and took samples of the peat and silt.
This was an interesting bog in that there was a thick layer of silt over the peat. So, it seemed that there was first a bog, then a lake, then another bog over time. How much time, we will have to wait and see, as Dr. Kudish will be sending samples off to be Radio-Carbon dated.
The whole day in the bog was fascinating. My son is an environmental biology major at SUNY ESF, which is where Dr. Kudish did his undergraduate studies, so they hit it off. Although my son will probably become an ornithologist, I think he really enjoyed being out with an experienced scientist in the field.
After the bog, we drove to another place I had wanted to visit for a long time, ______ Lake. It's on private property, so you can only get near it. We bushwhacked to within about 100 feet, on state land. I took a few pictures from within the trees. What a beautiful Lake!
The flies were out in force all day, but a little DEET kept them at bay!
