Welcome to Litsy!

Bogs, fens, muskeg & swamps: in addition to being fascinating places that support all kinds of rare species of plants, birds, animals & insects, these wet landscapes are vital to our survival on this planet. Science journalist Edward Struzik makes this amply clear, explaining the power of peat moss to sequester carbon as well as hold massive quantities of water, stop the spread of wildfires, mitigate flooding and more.

Peatlands, which represent no more than 4% of the earth‘s terrestrial surface, store twice as much carbon as all of the world‘s forests.

… the Horse River fire (2016), the most costly wildfire in Canadian history, may well have been slowed or stopped, had fens not been drained as part of a forestry experiment along the lone highway that leads to Fort MacMurray, the oil sands capital of the world.
(Internet photo)

There was tons of info so I should have read it in print format. Still a great book. I was amazed by all of the diversity in different fens, swamps, peat fields, etc. The Swamplands have provided sanctuary not only to rare animals and plants but also to people fleeing slavery. Instead of being the wasteland decried by many landowners, it provides safety from flooding, storage of Carbon, and protection from fire.

Hector Charlesworth, a Toronto-based art critic, was appalled when he took in a Group of Seven exhibit in 1921. In reviewing Lawren Harris‘s painting Beaver Swamp, Charlesworth noted, “A while ago I saw in an art gallery a picture of a swamp. A repulsive , forbidding thing. One felt like taking a dose of quinine every time one looked at it. If ugliness is real beauty, they have yet to prove it to a very large mass of the assembled public.”

The luna moth is aptly named because it uses moonlight, as some other moths do, to guide it on its nocturnal flights. It is a giant so rare and elusive in Alberta that it has a Sasquatch-like reputation. If there are fashion plates in the plain world of moths, the luna is a showboat.
(Internet photo)