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Big Bog
State Park Project
“We will work with the people of Minnesota to manage
Big Bog State Recreation Area so that its significant natural, cultural, and scenic resources are protected and enhanced for current and future generations while providing diverse
and unique educational and recreational opportunities without
negatively impacting park resources.”
Located
approximately 12
miles N of Waskish on MN Hwy 72.
Natural Features
The park is situated on a
low-lying, sedimentary plain that was once the bed of post-glacial Lake
Agassiz. The area
contains open sphagnum bogs, black spruce bogs, peat bogs, white cedar
swamps, and lake beaches. This bog gave rise to the name "Big Bog."
Park Facilities and
Activities
Park infrastructure is currently in the
development and construction phase. Development plans include
modern campgrounds, bogwalks, upgraded beach and day use area, and a new visitors
recreation center.
The
Red Lake Peatland contains
the largest, most diversely patterned
peatland in the United States. It lies in the middle of the Agassiz
Lowland landscape region in the north central part of the state. Over 50
miles long and 12 miles wide, the big bog, as it is called, features the
largest, best developed water track in the United States. The area
contains ovoid islands, circular islands, raised bogs, and every pattern
of fen feature—tear drop islands, circular islands, and ribbed fens.
Transitions in these surface patterns are of international significance
in the effort to understand peatland features and succession. Trails
used by caribou in their migration to Canada's calving grounds can still
be seen, though the last migration took place in the 1930s. A portion of
the area has been designated a National Natural Landmark.

This
national treasure provides habitat for many interesting animal, the
Eastern timber wolf, short-eared owl, yellow rail, Wilson's phalarope,
including the greater Sandhill Crane.
The
bog provides habitat for plant species Mountain
yellow-eyed grass, rare rushes. Sundews are carnivorous: an insect
becomes stuck among the resin-tipped hairs on a leaf, and then the leaf
curls in around the insect to digest it. Look carefully for sundews -
this entire plant is only about 1 inch across.
Pitcher
plants are also carnivorous. Insects are attracted to the leaves by
nectar, are led into the leaf by downward-pointing hairs, and
drown
in rainwater accumulated inside. Many of the species found in the bog
are specially adapted to compete in the constantly wet and acidic
conditions. Two strategies for plants dealing with nutrient-poor soils: carnivore
& evergreen.
*Part of this vast peatland is the
Maurice O'Link unit, gifted in memory of Maurice O'Link.
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