This Bog's a Fen EarthCache
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This is not a typical Geocache. There is no container to find and no physical log to sign at the coordinates. Rather, they will bring you to the parking lot of the Jackson Bog State Nature Preserve located in Stark County, 2 miles north of Massillon on Fulton Drive and .5 mile west of the intersection of SR 687 and SR 241. The preserve is adjacent to Jackson Township Park. Here you will be able to enjoy and learn about an important geological feature of Northeast Ohio. To log this Earthcache, you must gather information as you stroll along the boardwalk and email me the answers to the questions asked at the bottom of the page. If you do not send me the correct answers within 5 days of logging this cache, I will have to delete your log.
No pets are allowed, and please do not stray from the boardwalk for this is a fragile and sensitive environment. Practice CITO (Cache In/Trash Out), stay on the boardwalk, and leave no trace--take only pictures, leave only memories. No night caching—the Preserve is open from dawn to dusk only. Poison Sumac can be a problem here year-round.
More than 10,000 years ago, the last of the glaciers to cover Ohio slowly retreated back to the North Pole. This process left behind the Ohio River and the Great Lakes, but the big melt left behind much smaller signs of its passage as well: bogs and fens. The lakes or ponds that become bogs are different from other bodies of water because they must rely on rain to replenish them rather than streams or springs. As a general rule, retaining their size is a losing battle, and as they evaporate over thousands of years, plants from the shore invade, eventually filling the lake bed, creating bog meadows.
Jackson Bog, like many wetlands of its kind, was originally labeled a bog, but it’s actually a fen. The bodies of water that spawn true bogs are oxygen-poor and lack minerals that would normally come from the run-off of surrounding fields. They fill in with peat—organic soils created by the partial decomposition of plants in such conditions rather than the mineral-rich soils created by the weathering of rocks. Bog wetlands are very acidic.
But unlike the conditions that created true bogs in Portage County, much of northern Stark County is covered by belts of kame—highly permeable gravel deposits left behind by glacial runoff in the form of hills and ridges that absorb water from the surface and hold it as groundwater underneath. The northern edge of the Jackson Preserve borders one such belt, and groundwater seeps to the surface or bubbles up through springs. Fens are related to bogs—the oxygen-poor conditions are ripe for the growth of the sphagnum moss that grows and spreads to take over an old lakebed by filling it with peat—but fens have greater water exchange with the surrounding countryside, so they are less acidic than true bogs. The fen here in Jackson Township is fed by limestone springs—they bring calcium carbonate to surface. Thus this mineral-rich wetland supports more grasses than the acidic bogs to the north.
To begin your journey, walk from the parking lot to the trailhead, then turn left and follow the path to the southern end of the boardwalk. As you walk along the boardwalk, read the signs along the way that introduce you to many of the geological features and plants that make this place unique. You will emerge from the fen to the north where the boardwalk ends, and then a path will take you back to the trailhead. The boardwalk is a little over a mile long, and though the paths to and from the boardwalk to the trailhead and from the trailhead to the parking lot are well-groomed, they do go over hills, making a round trip walk of over 2 miles through some sloping terrain. Plan accordingly.
To receive credit for this cache, please email me the answers to the questions below within 5 days of logging it.
1. Bogs and fens are related because the water that feeds them lacks what? Fens differ from bogs because the underlying groundwater introduces what to the soil?
2. What is marl? How is it related to kame? Would you find marl in a bog? What color is the marl here? (Look for the marl where water seeps near the boardwalk, and don't take any samples of it.)
3. Why do carnivorous plants flourish in fens? Which one uses sticky hairs to trap insects? Another can be found at the northern end of the boardwalk—what is its name?
You are not required to post any photographs--but if you wish to, they would be most welcome. I'd like to fill the gallery with photos of the fen at different times of the year.
Thanks to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and permission granted for this Earthcache by Charlotte McCurdy, the Northeast District Preserve Manager. Dedicated state nature preserves represent the finest examples of Ohio’s natural features. Public visitation is encouraged but is closely regulated to protect the natural integrity of the preserves for future generations.
******** Congratulations to NH Nomads for FTF! ********
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)