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Wainfleet bog mined for peat sake:[Final
Edition] |
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Author(s): |
Andrew
Thomson |
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Article
types: |
News |
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Dateline: |
WAINFLEET |
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Section: |
Local News |
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Publication
title: |
Standard. St.
Catharines, Ont.: Jul 26, 2004. pg. A.4 |
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Source
Type: |
Newspaper |
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ISSN/ISBN: |
08373434 |
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ProQuest
document ID: |
672204571 |
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Text
Word Count |
451 |
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Article
URL: |
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Abstract (Article Summary) |
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German
prisoners-of-war were used during the Second World War to work at the bog,
hacking through the peat with saws and axes, guide Mich Germain said. In a large
area of dark brown peat, with dead tree branches and wild berry plants, peat
dams have been built to saturate the area horizontally. Non-native European
birch are starting to die out in flooded areas, said Kim Frohlich, an
ecologist with the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority. Doug Willford
grew up in Wainfleet and can remember watching smoke rise from the bog as
peat was being collected. |
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Full Text (451 words) |
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(Copyright The Standard (St. Catharines) 2004) WAINFLEET -
The Wainfleet Bog Conservation Area was a naturalist's haven Saturday
morning. A golden eagle
was spotted flying overhead, blueberries and raspberries were devoured and
rare flora surrounded those traipsing across the spongy ground. About 60
people joined Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority staff for a Saturday
morning tour of the bog. They saw
several plant species native to wetlands, such as the sundew, a small reddish
plant that consumes insects; Labrador tea, used by natives for drink;
leatherleaf, a shrub with small white flowers; and sphagnum moss. The
801-hectare wetland was purchased by the conservation authority in 1996. The
bog's peat, made from decomposed plants and moss, has formed over thousands
of years and has no nutritional value. It was mined there from the late-1800s
until 1985. An old wooden rail car still stands at the site entrance as a
reminder of that era. German
prisoners-of-war were used during the Second World War to work at the bog,
hacking through the peat with saws and axes, guide Mich Germain said. Staff are now
trying to recover portions of the bog depleted over the years because of the
peat extraction, along with drainage ditch construction and land development. In a large
area of dark brown peat, with dead tree branches and wild berry plants, peat
dams have been built to saturate the area horizontally. Non-native European
birch are starting to die out in flooded areas, said Kim Frohlich, an
ecologist with the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority. The bog is one
of only four areas in Canada with massasauga rattlesnakes, a threatened
species. Sixty-three rattlesnakes were observed between 1999 and 2003,
although none was seen Saturday morning. "They're
very shy," Frohlich said. "The rattle is a very light sound, like a
bee in a cup." The peat
averages a depth of one to two metres. The soft surface makes it difficult to
use heavy equipment inside the bog, Germain said. "It's
just like ground chocolate pudding once you break through that crust,"
he said. More than 20
hectares of the bog have been destroyed by fire since 1998, likely the result
of smoking or campfires -- both of which are banned. "Once you
smell a bog burning, there's no mistaking the odour," Germain said. "The
fires can smoulder underneath, just like a mattress." Doug Willford
grew up in Wainfleet and can remember watching smoke rise from the bog as
peat was being collected. "I
thought I'd finally explore it," said Willford, a retired Humber College
employee who now lives in Welland. "It's
quite nice back here."
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