Camosun Bog - AM

Camosun Bog

Camosun Bog’s origins trace back to 1000 years ago, after the ice age, when the location of Camosun Bog was a small depression in the ground left behind by the receding ice. The depression became a lake and slowly, over a few thousand years, the lake became a swamp. This process stopped new water and sediment from cleaning out the area, and the decaying plants used up the available oxygen surrounding the swamp, creating the perfect bog conditions. These conditions are favoured by a bog’s keystone species, Sphagnum Moss. Sphagnum moss helps to create and maintain the acidic environment of a bog by spreading hydrogen ions, and it absorbs water very easily. It is a Bryophyte, one of the earliest plants lacking evolutionary history, lacking cuticle or a vascular system. When this moss dies, it is called peat. Unlike other plants, Sphagnum moss decays very slowly, thus the peat builds up on itself creating a material which is different from soil.

Every metre of peat in a bog represents 400 years of bog growth. Camosun Bog is 5 metres deep, meaning it is 2000 years old, the peat at the bottom of the bog dating back to Shakespeare's time.  Bogs preserve artifacts very well because of their acidic conditions. Some of the items unearthed in Camosun Bog are old hockey pucks, coins, marbles, a button hat, and an ink pot. The bog was a very popular area for children to play in, which is probably why some of those items were found there. Kids used to play hockey on the frozen ponds in the bog, and go skating and sliding in the winter.

Bogs are known to be carbon sinks, because when the peat absorbs the carbon dioxide from the air, it does not release all that carbon at once when it dies, instead it releases it gradually over many years because the peat decays so slowly. The Musqueam people have been using the bog for 9000 years, according to their oral tradition.

City development put the bog at risk in 1929, when newly installed drains reduced the water levels of the bog and caused it to become overgrown with invasive species and trees. Some of these species which were invasive to the bog were polytrichum moss, various berry bushes, and western hemlock trees. Some of the native species are Sundew, labrador tea, bog cranberry, and pine trees.