"Into The Wild"

[Hank W.]

Do those muskeg places stink?

To high heaven certain time of the year, with these
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsh_Labrador_Tea
maybe this too
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bog-rosemary
and then
Johnson Off & RAID

[Rob A.]

Do those muskeg places stink?

Hmmm...this question actually made me stop to think... So I guess the answer is "Not particularly".... In the northern areas muskegs are often frozen for a good part of the year...and even in more southerly areas...there are bogs (...not called muskeg, though, but I think these distinctions can get rather subtle) ...very close to Vancouver...which seldom freeze or freeze only briefly...they don't stink, but do have a distinctive...to me anyway, but not unpleasant odour....

The acid environment is probably the main reason for this...decomposition compared to a more typical marsh or say a Louisiana bayou-type swamp is extremely slow...

Most activities associated with muskeg, such as oil exploration or logging, tend occur during the winter....though for me most of my "muskeg" experences have been in the summer...and occasionally during fall hunting trips...
I remember once seeing a stretch of railway line that had been rather poorly laid through muskeg country....I seem to recall that they had to cut the speed down to some very low rate... Kind of looked a bit like a "rollercoaster"...

And there are countless stories in the "backcountry" about Caterpillar tractors and vanishing forever...

Here are a couple of links on the construction of the Alaska Highway during WW II:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/277490/Constr ... OGS+GRAVEL

http://www.alaskahighwayarchives.ca/en/ ... rnroad.php

[Richard]

BTW kangaroos are now living wild and breeding on Kinder Scout having escaped from various Wildlife Parks

I'd guess Wallabies rather than Kangaroos.

[Rosamunda]

Wikipedia says Fens are alkaline and moorland is acidic, at least in the UK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fens

[Rob A.]

Looks like Hank and I have different standards on what constitutes a "stink"....

...though I guess it is quite site specfic... Looks like you'll have to apply your own "sniff test"...

...and interesting...you have the same kinds of small plants...Labrador tea and bog rosemary....

There's a bog, Camosun Bog...I wouldn't call it "muskeg", quite close to the University of BC, in Vancouver, ...I remember during one of my courses, we went into the bog and made notes and took samples of various things...besides the moss, the main "indicator" was the Labrador tea....

[Hank W.]

Looks like Hank and I have different standards on what constitutes a "stink"....

If it makes me sneeze its a stinking plant.

[Hank W.]

OK, so "Finnish words for bog"

Korvet jaetaan lehtokorpiin, ruoho- ja heinäkorpiin, kangaskorpiin, varsinaisiin korpiin, nevakorpiin ja lettokorpiin.
Rämeet luokitellaan kangasrämeisiiin, isovarpuisiin rämeisiin, korpirämeisiin, sararämeisiin, tupasvillarämeisiin, lettorämeisiiin ja rahkarämeisiin
neva (sphagnum moss bog) so I guess this is "moorland"...
letto (especially sphagnum fuscum moss bog) high calcium so this is "fen"
the two latter ones are "open grassy with wet spots" and you can figure out which is which if you're a botanist.

however; bogs are never just "one type" so theres aapasuo, keidassuo and palsasuo... keidassuo is the "southern type" that the centre of the bog is actually higher than the sides, aapasuo is where the centre is lower than the sides, and palsasuo is the "northern type" where you have those frost mounds.

Yeah, I started getting mosquito bites just by reading about these

[Rob A.]

Wikipedia says Fens are alkaline and moorland is acidic, at least in the UK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fens

Yes...I see that... I dug around a little further in wikipedia and found this classification system (I pulled out a few that are most relevant to our discussion):

A bog or muskeg is acidic peat land (peat bog).
A moor was originally the same as a bog but has come to be associated with this soil type on hill-tops.
A moss is a raised bog in Scotland
A fen is a freshwater peat land with chemically basic (which roughly means alkaline) ground water. This means that it contains a moderate or high proportion of hydroxyl ions (pH value greater than 7).
A carr is a fen which has developed to the point where it supports trees. It is a European term, mainly applied in the north of the UK.

Lots more... So it seems "muskeg" is probably a bit more of a generic term than I thought..essentially synonymous with "bog" ...and the term, "bog" covers, as Hank says, a number of variations...

There is a huge bog within metro Vancouver...about 25 km from downtown Vancouver, called Burns Bog... it's 40 sq km and is called a "domed peat bog" ...so that ties in with Hank's description: a "...keidassuo is the "southern type" that the centre of the bog is actually higher than the sides..."

[Rosamunda]

OK, so "Finnish words for bog"

Korvet jaetaan lehtokorpiin, ruoho- ja heinäkorpiin, kangaskorpiin, varsinaisiin korpiin, nevakorpiin ja lettokorpiin.
Rämeet luokitellaan kangasrämeisiiin, isovarpuisiin rämeisiin, korpirämeisiin, sararämeisiin, tupasvillarämeisiin, lettorämeisiiin ja rahkarämeisiin
neva (sphagnum moss bog) so I guess this is "moorland"...
letto (especially sphagnum fuscum moss bog) high calcium so this is "fen"
the two latter ones are "open grassy with wet spots" and you can figure out which is which if you're a botanist.

however; bogs are never just "one type" so theres aapasuo, keidassuo and palsasuo... keidassuo is the "southern type" that the centre of the bog is actually higher than the sides, aapasuo is where the centre is lower than the sides, and palsasuo is the "northern type" where you have those frost mounds.

Yeah, I started getting mosquito bites just by reading about these

Good article in today's HS (page D2) about bogs: Julkuneva, Kurkisuo, Lempaatsuo and Viurusuo with pictures. Apparently more than 80% of bogland in southern Finland has been drained since 1950...

[elisouli]

Hank W wrote:
Johnson Off & RAID

Miksi sinä etelän mies huitot? Miksi sinä et käytä Ohovia?



A classic...