Restoring an Imperiled Bog Ecosystem

Last week, our land management team ventured to the southern Blue Ridge Mountains to aid in the restoration work of an imperiled Southern Appalachian bog ecosystem. The habitat once supported large populations of wild cranberries (Vaccinium macrocarpon) and tawny cotton-grass (Eriophorum virginicum), both rare species in Tennessee. In fact, this site is the southernmost natural cranberry bog in the United States! Unfortunately, this bog became highly degraded from past land reclamation practices that changed the hydrology of the surrounding watershed. As a result, many of the area’s bogs were severely impacted in a negative way.

Now a multi-year effort led by the Southeastern Grasslands Institute’s Chattanooga office in partnership with the Tennessee Department of Conservation (Division of Natural Areas) and Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency is working to restore the bog and bring the bog plants back. Recently, four of our staff members and Native Landscape Apprentices at Reflection Riding joined in the restoration effort—Emily Jackson, Jahore Vann, Blandy Lopez, and Maria Alonzo Francisco. The group helped conduct cut stump treatments of invasive plants and removed cut material out of the bog to prevent any further detrimental changes to the bog ecology. With consistent management of the site over time the bog will slowly heal, and rare plant species will be protected for generations to come.

Naturalist Emily Jackson enjoyed visiting the unique habitat: “I always like seeing new habitat types in our area, and that’s something I like about my job and working in conservation in general. You get to go see places that you wouldn’t normally get to see and help improve them. It’s also fun to see cranberries.”