> Those of us in the North have seen the bog program on _The Nature of
> Things_.
> Canada harvests peat mostly for the horticulture trade.
> Scenes of peat bog devastation in Canada were terrible. First the bog
> is drained. It is dried and all vegetation is stripped away. Several
> inches of dry peat are then vacuumed up by harvesting tractors. What's
> left is a flat dry peat desert, in some shots reaching to the horizon.
> A technician for the peat industry says they leave enough of a peat-pack
> for the sphagnum to re-establish and grow the bog back.
> I'd hate to see what happens if a wind picks up before then.
Yes, this has always kind of bothered me. To the best of my knowledge
there are no reclamation standards in place for bogs in Canada. Mine
them and leave them. I am not aware of any studies that address whether
the bogs do grow back or whether they are changed completely to some
other ecosystem like swamp or peat desert. Still a pervasive attitude of
bogs as useless wastelands I guess.
Don