Orono Bog - Orono, Maine - U.S. National Natural Landmarks on Waymarking.com

National Park Service listing (visit link)

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The 616 acre Orono Bog is a wetland. Wetlands have soils that are water saturated, and plants that can tolerate wet soil. Orono Bog is a special kind of wetland called a peatland because of its deep layer of peat. A bog is a peatland with acidic and infertile soil, and with abundant peat moss and other acid tolerant plants. The central half of Orono Bog has been raised by peat accumulation to a higher level than at the edge, so it is called a raised bog. The raised surface, combined with the great thickness of the peat and the remoteness of the central area from the mineral soil of the upland, results in extreme infertility and dwarfed plant growth.
About 15,900 years ago, the glacier melted away and the area was invaded by the sea. A layer of silt and clay was deposited on the bottom of the sea. After a few hundred years, the land rose out of the sea. Small lakes formed in some low parts of the basin. Other parts of the basin supported non-wetland vegetation for about 4000 years. Around 11,200 years ago, the climate became wetter, and the poorly drained silt-clay soils of the basin became waterlogged. This condition allowed wetland plants to spread over the entire basin. Since then, the basin has remained wet, and thousands of generations of wetland plants have added their remains to a deepening layer of peat – now as deep as 25 feet in some parts of the bog.

Predominate Feature: Orono Bog is a classic northern sphagnum bog Parking/Access Location: N 44° 51.760 W 068° 43.654 Ownership: Other Public Entity Terrain Rating: Admission Charged: no Landmark's Website: [Web Link]

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Date Logged Log User Rating   09/29/2012 UMainah visited it