Boreal Birds and Bogs Abound

BOREAL BIRDS AND BOGS ABOUND

Wednesday, June 13, 2007 (Napanee Beaver)

Friday, June 15, 2007 (Picton Gazette)

The rust coloured matted hairs on the underleaf which identify this plant protect the Labrador tea from moisture loss in the drying winds of the Hudson Bay Lowlands. While Algonquin Provincial Park is not a permafrost peat plateau, the site here in the park is, however, a spruce bog. The clusters of delicate white flowers were beginning to thin, their creamy-white colours, accented by a backdrop of slender black spruces. A white-winged crossbill perched for all to see on a dead horizontal black spruce limb, its liquid warble drawing our attention to its presence.

Algonquin is full of such surprises and a variety of things to see. On this day, twinflowers, bunchberries and fringed polygalas were centre stage. Delicately displaying its rose-purple petals along many of the trails we walked that day, this tiny denizen of Algonquin is often mistaken for an orchid. They are interesting little plants with an amazing story connected with their reproduction. On the outside of each seed is a transparent appendage filled with an oily liquid that ants find particularly appealing. These “baited” seeds are cut out of the ripe fruits of the plant, and are then carried by the ants back to their nests. After the ants have consumed the oily appendages, the undamaged seeds are discarded into a nearby refuse dump utilized by the ants, which act as nutrient rich seed beds for new colonies of fringed polygala plants.

Along the Spruce Bog Boardwalk, we found tufts of cotton grass growing in the bogs, small puffs of cotton balls waving back and forth in the gentle breeze that found its way into the open areas of this predominantly treed area. While masquerading as a grass, the plant is actually a species of sedge and there are more than 100 sedge species in Algonquin, compared to only 80 species of grass. We tend to overlook most of them as their handicap in the human popularity contest is the obvious lack of flowers. They are pollinated by wind, and have no need to flaunt dazzling colours to attract insects. And if you are not going to be pollinated by insects, why bother to waste energy to put out colourful flowers to attract them?

The Big Pines Trail is one of the more recent trails to be added to the park’s roster of 15 or so walking trails. A cooperative venture of The Friends of Algonquin and the Algonquin Forest Authority, the trail is a tribute to the memory of the giant white pine. There are about 75 giant white pines along this trail, many of them far in excess of 200 years in age. They tower over 100 feet in height, the lower half straight and true, smooth and branchless until well above the canopy of their deciduous neighbours.

These trees were missed by the loggers in the 1800s, likely far too small back then to attract their attention. But how did these huge pines get here in the first place? A “church door” on one pine we came across was evidence that Algonquin had been the scene of occasional forest fires, this one likely occurring sometime around 1928 or so. But fire played a role too in these white pines being here. Fires burned off the dead leaves on the forest floor, subsequently exposing the mineral soil needed for the white pine seeds to geminate. With any amount of luck, these same fires destroyed some of the overhead trees, allowing light to penetrate to the new seedlings. And if the seeds were dropped right after the fire, and before other competing vegetation got a head start, these pines were on their way to becoming the giants that are present today. It is believed that all the pines on this trail germinated the same year, suggesting a forest fire and the right set of circumstances in 1790.

The Big Pines Trail is for the hiker who likes to hike, then stop and contemplate history, and what it might have been like in the logging days of earlier years. There is a decaying white pine log part way along the trail dating back to 1890. Sliced at each end by a cross cut saw, the log, now serving as a food bank for numerous tree seedlings, tells the story of a log that had a defect, and was left behind. Farther on, the foundations of an ancient sawlog camp, now covered in forest growth, tell the story of when the teamsters and the swampers and, of course, the cutters, lived here for the entire winter.

Algonquin Park has many such stories to be told, and it was my pleasure that day to guide a busload of outdoor enthusiasts along some of the trails. There are so many hiking trails, each with a different theme. The logging museum, of course is legendary at Algonquin. The 10-minute video is a must, and as the last slide of the camboose appears on the screen, the screen ascends like a garage door, and the recreated camboose marking the start of the logging museum self guided trail is suddenly there before you.

We plan to do other bus tours to this exciting park. Passengers spoke enthusiastically about a repeat trip, and a fall colour tour of the park with a hike, and a winter trip. All are special seasons, and each season is highlighted by a tour of the famous Visitor Centre and lunch as part of the package. If you are interested in such a trip, give me a call sometime. The bus we use from Foleys Bus Lines in Madoc is washroom equipped and also features video monitors allowing us to show you videos on Algonquin or some other nature related presentation.