PELLSTON, Mich. — Bogs are unique wetlands that showcase diverse ecosystems and serve as valuable research sites.
A favorite research site and outdoor classroom near the University of Michigan Biological Station, a research and teaching campus in northern Michigan, is Mud Lake Bog.
“It’s wild,” said Kailey Koshorek, who will be a senior in the fall at U-M, of her first walk through a bog. “It’s almost like a once-in-a-lifetime thing. When are you going to go jump in the mud where it’s all squishy and weird?”
Koshorek and her fellow UMBS students in Dr. Becky MacKay’s ecology class explored Mud Lake Bog in June. They started by walking on a sometimes-submerged boardwalk that weaves through a muddy forest. The boardwalk eventually ends and opens to a mossy area.
“There are lots of different sensory things you get when walking through the bog,” Koshorek said. “At first is just looks a little muddy. It looks a little wet. It’s not too bad, just general mud. Then it gets almost like you’re sinking in it a little bit. You can get about ankle deep sometimes.”
UMBS alumna Laura McAndrew wrote on Facebook, "Can confirm, that bog was the weirdest ground I’ve stood (moon-bounced?) on and I am still telling people about it almost 20 years later."
The bog is home to large mats of red moss called Sphagnum and carnivorous plants such as Pitcher plants.
“The Sphagnum looks like stars. It’s moss and it holds the ground together of the bog. The whole thing is just a bed of moss,” Koshorek said. “And this part is a little — not spiky — but you can feel the little pieces of moss on your feet. It’s very squishy almost like you’re stepping into like that play sand you give kids to use and play with.”
"My Grandfather Gates used to take his students there in about 1921,” said Marilyn Gates on Facebook. “While he lectured to them, they all began to slowly sink, looking quite uncomfortable, but not wanting to be disrespectful and say anything. Finally, he would laugh and let them slog on to firmer ground!"
Koshorek explained how it felt to go to the edge.
“You’re sinking to the bottom,” Koshorek said. “The closer and closer you get to the water, the entirety of the moss just sinks down so you can get to your waist deep. And then you’re still standing on all of this moss. It’s like this mud that kind of fills up around where your legs are, kind of like you’re wearing waders and you can feel the water around you, but instead it’s like mud and sediment and things.”
Students ended up jumping into Mud Lake and swimming.
“It’s really cold,” Koshorek said. “The sunlight will not penetrate through so the bottom of it is so cold compared to the water that’s up near my shoulders. It is quite the experience.”
Founded in 1909, the U-M Biological Station is one of the nation’s largest and longest continuously operating field research stations. For 116 years, students, faculty and researchers from around the globe have studied and monitored the impact of environmental changes on northern Michigan ecosystems.
The core mission of the Biological Station is to advance environmental field research, engage students in scientific discovery and provide information needed to understand and sustain ecosystems from local to global scales. In this cross-disciplinary, interactive community, students, faculty and researchers from around the globe come together to learn about and from the natural world and seek solutions to the critical environmental challenges of our time.
Watch the Mud Lake Bog video and scroll down to view more photos.
