LITERATURE SURVEY
Though the large wetland complexes of the St. Regis River Basin (Table 1) are relatively vast and uncommon, little has been written about them. Information was found for only three of the wetlands: Spring Pond Bog (which straddles the St. Regis and Raquette River watersheds), Bay Pond Bog, and Madawaska Wetland. The information available for Spring Pond Bog and Bay Pond Bog is sufficient as a basis for further studies, but not for Madawaska.
Perhaps the earliest mention of some the St. Regis River Basin wetlands is in the 1931 fisheries study, A Biological Survey of the St. Lawrence Watershed, by the NYS Conservation Department (NYS Conservation Department 1931). This study was one of a series of watershed reports from around the State.
The study discusses stocking policies for certain watersheds of the St. Lawrence river basin, including the Grass, St. Regis, Salmon and Chateaugay watersheds. It lists fish species present in certain lakes, and their habitat requirements and stocking recommendations. Recognition of the peatlands in the region is reflected in this quote:
The lakes, occurring mostly in the Adirondack mountains, present less variety of habitats, but even here some are surrounded for the most part by sandy or stony shores while others have muddy of boggy shores. Most of the lakes are at least partly fed by streams which pass through bogs and marshes. The water in these is usually brown in color and has a low transparency.
The vegetation chapter in the study (Pp. 121-143) describes emergent aquatic vegetation in lakes, streams, rivers and riparian areas, and submerged river vegetation. "Weed beds," containing such species as pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata), water lilies (Nuphar spp., Nymphaea spp.), submerged pondweeds (Potamogeton spp.), and sedges (Carex spp.), are mapped for Osgood Pond and Meacham Lake in the St. Regis Watershed.
Other areas in the study where wetlands were mentioned were in the pond and lake classification chapter (Pp. 161-166) in which water bodies were categorized into 11 types from bog waters (with low oxygen, not capable of supporting fish) to dammed flowing streams. Below are the first three categories that mention peatlands:
Type 1: ". . . small bog ponds with no inlet or outlet and entirely surrounded by bogs. . . There are many such ponds scattered over this region and many trout have been wasted by attempts at stocking them." [Note: It is likely that the open water areas in the raised bog area of Spring Pond Bond would fit into this type.]
Type 2: "The ponds in this type are much like Type 1 except that they do have tributary streams. . . .The shores are quaking bogs."
Type 3: "In this type are placed the large ponds, with their surfaces cut up by many floating bogs. They are the typical muskegs of the Canadian forests." [Note: Madawaska Pond is listed in the report under this type.]
The three pond and lake classifications included in the fisheries report show that the authors recognized the extensive influence of peatlands on water quality in the St. Lawrence Watershed.
More detailed descriptions of specific peatlands in the St. Regis Watershed are given in two reports from the early 1980s that were drawn up in response to an application brought before the APA to mine peat from Spring Pond Bog (APA 1981). The application proposed mining a total of 152 acres (61.5 ha) from portions of the three open peatland sections collectively known as Spring Pond Bog. Although a permit was granted under certain conditions, the mining never took place due to difficulty with mechanical harvest operations.
As a result of the permit process, Spring Pond Bog was brought into the public eye and subsequently came under conservation easement by the Adirondack Conservancy (now Adirondack Nature Conservancy and Land Trust). Today it is used as an outdoor classroom by ANCLT, who built a wheelchair-accessible 375-ft. (114.3 m) boardwalk through the bog.
According to the two reports developed as a result of the peat mining application, the effort to protect Spring Pond Bog was well directed. Jerry Jenkins (1981) wrote,
Spring Pond Bog is the most valuable candidate for a potential natural area I have encountered in the last 5 years of fieldwork, either in New York or New England . . . I do not know of another potential natural area that qualifies in as many different ways as this one, or is so strong in each of the qualifications.
Jenkins estimated the total wetland complex area, including bog, fen, and shrub-swamp areas, at 900-1000 acres (364-405 ha). The second report on Spring Pond Bog by Worley (1982), which compared it with Massawepie Mire (Grass River watershed), Bay Pond Bog, and Bloomingdale Bog (Saranac River watershed), estimated the Spring Pond Bog peat mat area alone to be 460 acres (186.2 ha). The large size of Spring Pond Bog is unusual in the present-day northeastern US aside from Maine, where Spring Pond Bog would nonetheless be considered "very large" (Worley 1982).
An uncommon feature shared by Spring Pond Bog and Bay Pond Bog is the ladderform (patterned) appearance of the fen portion of the peat mat, meaning that expanses of open fen are interrupted at intervals by "strings" of taller vegetation that interconnect each other around the mat. Worley (1982) speculates that Spring Pond Bog and Bay Pond Bog are likely the southernmost patterned peatlands in North America, and perhaps the entire Northern Hemisphere. They are two of only five patterned peatlands in the eastern US.
Spring Pond Bog is unusual because it has both vegetation patterns and secondary ponds. This feature is claimed by only one other wetland in the contiguous US in Maine (Worley 1982). In areas where patterned fens are more common, such as Scandinavia and northern Russia, scattered ponds like those at Spring Pond Bog may form and later merge into linear open water areas perpendicular to the direction of water flow (Mitsch and Gosselink 1993). Open water areas are likely more minerotrophic (Mitsch and Gosselink 1993), which may explain why Jenkins (1981) found grass pink orchid (Calopogon tuberosus) and white fringed orchid (Platanthera blephariglottis) at the borders of the ponds in Spring Pond Bog.
In addition to the two species named above, Jenkins (1981) found six other rare species in his survey of Spring Pond Bog. He found the largest population of white fringed orchid in NYS (>1000 flowering members) ever reported. He attributed the diversity of species to the probable influx of "calcium-rich groundwater" from eskers at the western edge of the bog, and noted that calcareous fens are rare in the Adirondacks. The central portion of the peatland is likely a truly ombrotrophic (rain-fed) domed bog since it is 2-3 ft. (about 1 m) higher than the edges (Jenkins 1981).
The two reports by Jenkins (1981) and Worley (1982) provide excellent descriptions of Spring Pond Bog (and Bay Pond Bog, in the case of Worley) including general vegetation characteristics, rare plant lists, and explanations for the formation of these uncommon wetlands, which would be extremely useful as a basis for further studies.
Studies of other large wetland complexes outside the St. Regis, but in the St. Lawrence river basin, were found in the process of this literature survey. In particular, a great amount of data on plant communities, wildlife and water quality at Massawepie Mire, Jones Pond, Middle Saranac Lake, Simon Pond, and the Grass River Wetlands exist in three 1975 theses from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (Hardin 1975; Karlin 1975; Westfall 1975). Worley's (1982) study contains a description of Massawepie Mire, and a paper describing the findings of a bryological foray at Sevey Bog was also found (Slack and Zander 1977). These will be described in Part Two of the St. Lawrence Watershed study, but are noted to reinforce the fact that the St. Lawrence Watershed has many large wetlands for which historical data exist that merit follow-up studies.
Continue to next section of St. Regis Report: Methods
Return to Table of Contents
References Cited