Guided walk brings out the scientist in a group of carefree kids and the kid in their curious parents

Now," the nature walk leader said to the young, eager faces, "I'm going to tell you some cool things about sphagnum moss."

It was a summery Saturday morning - the air warm, a breeze blowing, white puffy clouds overhead. Six kids accompanied by their parents - Brandon with Domenica Vacca and Sonny Woo, Jamie and Madeline with Nancy Marks, John and Margaret with Mary Jane Peterson, and my daughter Tessa and I - were attending "Peat Bogs for Kids," held at the Orono Bog Boardwalk, the mile-long, planked path on the bog adjacent to the Bangor City Forest.

Emily Michaud, a senior at the University of Maine and intern at the boardwalk, asked the children if they use anti-bacterial soap at home. A chorus of "yes."

"Well, sphagnum moss kills germs," Emily said. "People used to use it as a kind of soap."

Then came the kicker. Michaud, with perfect comic timing, said, "People also used to use sphagnum moss as diapers."

The kids responded in unison: "Eeeewww!"

We were on a scavenger hunt to find interesting plants along the boardwalk, each child armed with a page of color photos, pen or pencil in hand. This, of course, was just part of the goal. It was also to learn about the flowers, plants, trees, and animals that inhabit a bog. As Michaud said to Tessa when we arrived at the cabin that serves as the welcome center for the bog: "Hopefully, we will learn some fun things."

I came to this walk with some bias. Don't get me wrong: I love nature, high mountain peaks, pristine lakes, meadows of pretty alpine flowers ... but a bog? Isn't that just a nice name for a swamp? A fertile breeding ground for noisy, annoying mosquitoes?

What good is a bog anyway?

It turns out a bog is good in lots of ways ... if you look close enough.

We continued on our hunt for plants, walking up the boardwalk, Michaud's flip-flops slapping on the wood.

The kids found a high-bush blueberry plant, and then the white-fringed orchid. In part because there are more than 20 species of orchids in the bog, the most recorded in the state, and because birds such as the Lincoln's sparrow and palm warbler nest here, the Orono bog was named a National Natural Landmark in 1976.

The bog, with all of these natural features, is situated in a unique place. Indeed, standing in the woods, looking at the tall hardwood trees, hearing a bird twilling in the distance, surrounded by a dense layer of green plants, it is hard to believe that Home Depot is a mile away, the perfume counter of Filene's just two miles away.

Scrambling along the boardwalk, the children then found the pitcher plant, which held their attention. The pitcher plant supplements the nutrients it needs through unique fly-catching. The fragrance and the colors of the plant's tubular leaf attract insects, which fall into the water inside it. It's a trap. Because the inner surface of the leaf is slippery and has downward pointing hairs near the top, insects drown. The decayed bugs provide nutrients to the plant, necessary for survival on the bog. Michaud used a large dropper to draw out mosquito larvae from the pitcher plant.

"Cool," Brandon said.

"Look what I found, Mommy," said Madeline, wearing a purple fairy princess hat. "It eats insects."

As with the sundew plant - next on our list - carnivorous plants such as the pitcher plant have a close relationship to the bog, according to John Daigle, director of the boardwalk.

"The bog provides a unique environment for certain plants and animals," he said. "Without the bog, you wouldn't have these carnivorous plants."

The bog, with its standing water, is a haven for bugs, and these carnivorous plants and other species of birds live well on a steady diet of these insects. It is the great circle of life.

All I know: As with bats and birds, anything that eats bugs is a species that I admire.

We emerged out of the dark canopy of trees into an open, barren, bright land. It was disorienting at first, like coming out of a movie theater into the afternoon sunshine.

Michaud then showed the kids how the land had changed. Earlier on the walk, on an uphill island in the bog, Emily pushed a 4-foot metal rod into the ground. Thud. It hit solid ground. Now, she got out her rod again and inserted it into the ground. It went in easily. She added another section and that went in as well. It was a magic trick - the amazing, disappearing rod.

"Wow," said Jamie, wearing a Boston Red Sox cap.

Michaud estimated the peat moss to be 20 feet deep here, and possibly as deep as 50 feet in other places.

The 616-acre Orono bog - some of which is in Bangor - is a special kind of wetland because of this deep layer of peat, which consists of undecomposed remains of mosses, leaves, seeds, branches and even tree trunks accumulating over time.

This is, in part, why we're walking on a boardwalk. The sphagnum moss is a continuous mat covering the ground, but it's sensitive to human intrusion. Ron Davis, a retired professor of biology at UMaine, had brought students over the years to the bog but noticed over time they were harming the bog. He initiated an effort to build the boardwalk, allowing for low-impact access, in 2000.

Consisting of 509 8-foot-long, 4-foot-wide sections, the boardwalk cost, excluding volunteer labor, more than $150,000 to construct. In essence, the structure floats on the water-saturated peat, much like a very long lakefront dock.

Even though the bog here seems barren, Michaud identified interesting items along the boardwalk: cotton grush, small cranberry plants and other species of the hummock, leatherleaf, sheep laurel and bog laurel. She noted that the small trees, mostly black spruce and tamarack, are older than the taller trees that rim this raised section of the bog. These trees can survive on the bog, which receive nutrients only from rain, snow and the atmosphere, with less sustenance. She explained the bog collects water in the spring and releases it over the summer.

Swept up by all this information and curiosity, the parents joined in the learning. I asked Michaud to name a bird singing in the forest, another parent asked her to identify a plant, another asked about the cotton grush.

Whose walk was this anyway?

Of course, kids are only part of the outreach at the bog. The group organizes other nature walks (see sidebar) and a docent program that leads guided walks for groups. The boardwalk also features seven interpretative stations that explain what's happening at the bog for visitors, who've come from nearly all 50 states and from Germany, Sweden, Norway, Japan and China.

"The trees are getting taller again," Tessa observed as the boardwalk circled back into the forest.

The kids identified the last plant on the list, a rose pagonia, or snake mouth, which looks, not surprisingly, like the mouth of a snake.

After this, near the end of the walk, the kids started spontaneously investigating things along the trail on their own.

"Hey, look at this," Margaret shouted.

The children hunched down, scanning the leaves of some small plants. A green caterpillar sat motionless on a leafy branch.

"I don't see it," Madeline said. "Oh, there it is."

Brandon even did some speculating: "It was moving, but then it got scared and stopped."

As the walk ended, the kids played on the rock commemorating the bog as a National Natural Landmark.

Domenica Vacca said that the bog walk had been valuable.

"Walks like this get them to appreciate nature, and that's important," she said. "Hopefully, it will encourage children to protect the environment one day."

Plus, as Sonny Woo noted, this nature preserve is in "your own back yard."

And Nancy Marks said something about her children that resonated with me.

"They're outside all the time, but are they really thinking about nature?" she said. "This walk forced them to look closer at nature."

Me, too.

Mark Condon is a freelance writer based in Bangor. He can be reached at mcondon40@yahoo.com.

Upcoming Orono Bog Boardwalk walks


. "How Some Plants Survive Where Most Plants Would Perish," 9-11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 27, Professor Christa Schwintzer of University of Maine Department of Biological Sciences. What special features and abilities do these hardy wetland plants possess that allow them to thrive in these environments where most other plant species would perish?

. "Lichens of the Orono Bog" 9-11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 10, UMaine faculty associate Jim Hinds will introduce some common lichens found in forests and bogs. Bring a hand lens if you have one.

. "Mushroom Ecology of Orono Bog" 7-11 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 14. Alma Homola will lead this Fields Pond Audubon Center class limited to 10 people ($10 per person). Credit card prepayment required. This mushroom quest is oriented towards beginners. We will start in the Bangor City Forest. After finding mushrooms and studying them close-up in upland forest, we will walk around the bog boardwalk and see what species grow there. Bring field guides and hand lenses if you have them.

. "Deep Peat," 9-11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 24, Ron Davis, retired University of Maine biology professor, will use a special device to probe down into the peat and bring up small peat samples from a series of depths. Participants are encouraged to bring hand lenses or magnifying glasses to examine the contents of these ancient deposits.