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Big Bog
Media Articles
Views in the News - Big
Bog State Park Proposal Open for View
Big
Bog has Big Plans | For Peat's
Sake
Jerry Stensing,
Stewardship forester,
Waskish, Minn.
"Reproduced from Grand
Forks Herald 4/18/02"
Jerry Stensing is a stewardship
forester for the Beltrami Soil and Water Conservation District. As a
volunteer, he also serves as vice president of the Citizens Committee of
the Upper Red Lake Area Association.
In the latter capacity, Stensing helped lead the effort to turn a
9,000-acre tract near Upper Red Lake into the Big Bog State Recreation
Area. The state awarded the designation in 2000. The bog, the largest
peatland bog in the United States, has been called Minnesota’s “last
true wilderness” and has the potential to be a world-class attraction.
Stensing lives in the Big Bog area with his family.
Stensing spoke with Herald Staff Writer Dorreen Yellow Bird.
Why are the Waskish and Kelliher, Minn., communities working so
hard on the state recreation area in the Big Bog area north of Upper Red
Lake?
About four years ago, this area hit rock bottom economically because of
the collapse of the walleye fishing in the Red Lake. There was nothing
open in Waskish. You couldn’t buy a loaf of bread. People had to drive
all the way to Kelliher and back for a gallon of chainsaw gas.
Kelliher, along with Upper Red Lake association and Headwater
regional development commission, chipped in to pay the costs of
examining our options.
We went through a visioning process. We looked at our strengths
and weaknesses and asked where we wanted to be 20 years from now. We
(about 60 people) came up with a list of about 15 potential projects.
Out of the 15 projects, creation of the State Park and a visitor’s
center topped the list. When I first thought about it, I wondered who
would want to come up to the Big Bog area and feed the insects, but the
more I looked in it, the more I realized that “Hey, we really have
something special here.”
Our community had been economically devastated, but rather than
going to the state with our hand out and saying, “We’re hurt, so
please help,” we said, “Yes, we got hurt, but we found a way that we
can help ourselves and the state of Minnesota, too.” So rather than
being a “gimme”, it was, “Let’s create opportunities so that the
entrepreneur can open stores or motels.”
Does the money that you are investing in this project come from
the state?
Yes, most of it does. The community contributions are about 2,000 hours
of volunteer work, as well as $45,000 in contributions such as $15,000
for a feasibility study, and the visioning process for $10,000. We had
$5,000 for establishing a citizens’ group.
Our original request was a little more than $4.5 million. The
Legislature embraced the concept and created the park at 9,400 acres,
and they gave us $2.17 million for infrastructure. That money is for
boardwalks, a new sanitary building in the south unit, campground
upgrades and a whole shopping list of other things. We will modernize
camps for electricity and modern facilities. There are about 30
campsites.
What do you think your investment in the bog will return?
In the early stages, the conservative projections were about 40,000
people visiting the bog each year. Once we are up and running, we expect
about 100,000 people on an annual basis. That will bring in somewhere
around $2 million in tourism revenue on an annual basis for the region.
It will mean about 40 jobs.
What makes the Upper Red Lake and Big Bog area special?
The park is located in what are called the Agassiz Lowlands, which date
back about 10,000 years to when the landscape was gouged out by the
glaciers and then covered by Lake Koochiching and later Lake Agassiz.
As little as 3,500 years ago, the global climate was much warmer
and drier, and a lot of this area was swamp conifers such as tamarack,
black spruce and white cedar. This was oak savanna and prairie. Oak
savanna is where you have an interspersion of oak trees and prairie.
Because of global cooling, it became wetter up there and then
sphagnum moss took hold. Once the sphagnum covered the ground, it
created its own conditions — highly acidic and short of nutrients. It
changed all of the vegetation growing out here.
The Red Lake peatlands are about 2.5 million acres of bog north of
Upper Red Lake. The bog itself is the largest peatland in the lower 48
states. We also have the largest scientific and natural areas, which
will be off limits and managed the same as scientific and natural areas.
Within Minnesota, there are currently no major parks that focus on bogs
and no wilderness parks.
The draw of the park is wilderness. It is a land of extremes. If
you visit the Big Bog, you need to be prepared for some harsh conditions
at different times of the year. In April, a walk on the boardwalk would
be beautiful, but in mid-June when the insects are out, you may want to
take the walk at 10 a.m. when the bugs aren’t so bad, or wait until
later on in the summer.
These insects are the best darn wimp repellant there is! But there
aren’t as many as a person would think. When you are on a bog walk,
you are about 18 inches above the vegetation surface so you are not
stirring them up out of the grass and brush. Realistically, there are
only a few months out of the year where insects can be pesky. And you
can’t truly appreciate it unless you experience all those things.
Up here, we gauge our activities by what is happening out in
nature, and you act accordingly. There are times during the year when
you just don’t go for walks in the woods because of the insects.
I like to think that if water is the lifeblood of the earth, then
this area is the heart. The bog — the peat and sphagnum moss — holds
so much water there is over 6 million acre feet of water held in these
peat lands. I have heard some say that if you squeeze it like a sponge,
you would have enough water to cover the state of Minnesota with a foot
of water.
What wildlife and plants can people see in the Big Bog?
Moose, gray wolves, fisher (a larger member of the weasel family) and a
few bears. Early in this century, there were some caribou.
Some of the wildlife and endangered species in the area are:
Wilson’s phalarope, a rare bird; northern bog lemming, northern hawk
owl, great gray owl, dragon’s mouth, white dragon’s mouth, bog
sedge, twig rush, small yellow lady’s slipper, boreal owl, snowy owl,
ramshead orchid, swamp malaxis, dwarf cedar (300 to 500 years old),
showy lady’s slipper, English sundew, linear-leaved sundew, green
adder’s-mount, tall white bog-orchid, and northern bog-orchid.
Will there be any damage to Red Lake?
No, we are spending a considerable amount of money on wastewater
treatment. We are spending 10 times more than what is normally spent on
the bog walks, because we are putting in something that is actually new:
boardwalks that let sunlight and water go through. They don’t damage
the vegetation underneath.
When will the construction begin?
Construction will start this spring.
Yellow Bird writes columns and this Prairie Voices feature. To
comment or to suggest people to profile in Prairie Voices, reach her at
780-1228, (800) 477-6572 ext. 228 or dyellowbird@gfherald.com.
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The
aerial view shows the Tamarack River in the foreground and Upper
Red Lake in the background at Waskish along state Highway 72,
focal point of the new Big Bog State Park. An open house on park
plans is 7 p.m. Tuesday at Kelliher School
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BLACKDUCK
- The Big Bog State Park, born from a grass-roots effort that eventually
enveloped an entire community, will move into its next stage of
development.
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An open house is 7-8:30 p.m. Tuesday in the commons area of Kelliher
High School, where the public will have a chance to view the draft
management plan for the Big Bog Recreation Area in Waskish.
Members of the state Department of Natural Re-sources will be on hand
to describe the project and answer questions.
The public will have a 30-day window in which to comment on the
70-page plan. Afterwards, it will be sent to Natural Resources
Commissioner Alan Garber for his signature. It will then be forwarded to
Gov. Jesse Ventura for the same.
Funding, already set aside during the 2000 legislative session will
then be put to use this spring on several park projects.
To date, only a fraction of the $2 million initially allotted for the
park has been used. The remaining $1.8 million will be used to restore
the campground's sanitation building, construct boardwalks leading into
the bog, drill wells, renovate the campground and rebuild the fire tower
for use as an observation site to view the expanse of the bog and Upper
Red Lake.
To date, work completed at the site includes the remodeling of the
shop and garages into temporary office space and the completion of the
archeological work, designed to preserve cultural artifacts found there.
The management plan the public is being asked to review, critiques
state recreation area designs for the Big Bog site, the newest unit in
the Minnesota State Park System.
Presentation of the plan culminates nearly three years of work on the
project by members of the Big Bog Advisory Committee.
"This upcoming meeting is exciting, because it's the fruition of
a grass-roots initiative that's community driven," said Jerry
Stensing, who helped spearhead the Big Bog effort.
Although the project began with only about a dozen people, it
evolved, eventually involving people from all walks of life.
"Loggers, tree huggers, bird watchers, hunters, ATV and
snowmobiler users and even those who just enjoy walking in the woods,
have all had a say in the development of this park," Stensing said.
"This project is really a model of a cooperative effort toward a
common goal. We were in a tough situation and we responded to it. In a
very real way this project reflects the American spirit."
That tough situation was the collapse of the walleye fishing industry
in Upper Red Lake. When the bottom fell out, Waskish, once bustling with
tourists and anglers, virtually became a ghost town. Resorts closed as
did other businesses. People living in the area couldn't even buy a
gallon of gasoline there.
Seeing the town die, area citizens came together to brainstorm for
solutions. Ideas were brought forth, including the development of a
state park focusing on the Big Bog.
"The idea took hold and things began to happen," Stensing
said. "Doors began to open and we walked through every one of them.
This park was meant to be."
Legislators, such as Sen. Roger Moe, DFL-Erskine, who heard the
group's presentation, were quickly sold on the idea.
Bills were passed at the Legislature in 2000, securing more than $2
million for the park's infrastructure costs.
During the current session, Big Bog Advisory Committee members will
return to the Legislature with a request for an additional $1.6 million
to build a visitor center at the site.
The bill for that additional funding is ready for introduction,
according to Stensing.
"He (Moe) along with other legislators saw the value of this
project and embraced it," Stensing said. "We feel confident
we'll obtain some funding. I doubt the Legislature would pull the plug
on this project now that its come this far."
The park, anticipated to revitalize the Waskish economy, is expected
to impact the entire region, bringing in an estimated 100,000 visitors
annually.
"We fully expect to have international visitors here too,"
Stensing said. "Plus, the park will provide jobs. And that's
certainly another benefit in the light of the current economic climate.
So, area contractors should be taking a hard look at this project
too."
Charmaine Barranco is editor of The American in Blackduck.
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| ©The
Pioneer 2002 |
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Jerry
Stensing (pointing), vice chairman of the Big Bog
Citizens Advisory Board, points out some of the
improvements slated for the Upper Red Lake beach and
picnic area as part of the Big Bog State Recreation
Area.
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WASKISH
- With a full-time park manager on the way and $1.79 million
in work planned, the state's newest park - Big Bog State
Recreation Area - is well on its way.
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But operating funds for the park may be in limbo until
the Legislature puts it into the state Department of Natural
Resources' base funding, officials said here Monday.
Until then, because of a pending DNR budget shortfall,
the DNR proposes to use some of the park's operating funds
to spread among its other 66 state parks, Bill Morrissey,
director of the DNR's Division of Parks and Recreation, said
Monday at a meeting about Big Bog progress.
"As far as resource protection, this fits in
perfectly for Minnesota," Morrissey said of the Waskish
park. "It has a wetlands component and is something
we've looked at for a long time. We have several Scientific
and Natural Areas, but one with a center was missing. This
fulfills that niche."
But while the Legislature has been willing to provide
capital funds for the new park, operational funding is less
secure.
The DNR in its current biennium budget was appropriated
$400,000 over the two years for the Big Bog park, but was
ordered to take it from existing budgets. That means other
state parks are shorted.
Of the $200,000 budgeted this year, only $10,000 has been
spent so far, Morrissey said, figuring that at least
$150,000 will be available by fiscal year's end. He proposes
to take $100,000 from next year's appropriation to spread to
the other parks - which would still leave $250,000 for the
two-year budget.
The funding isn't in the DNR's base, so that means the
Big Bog park would have to come back to the Legislature
every two years for funding, he added. An assistant park
manager at Zippel Bay State Park near Williams has agreed to
use a mobility leave to become the Big Bog's manager for a
year, but Morrissey said it will be hard to hire a
naturalist and other workers with no more than a one-year
guarantee.
"The best way is to include this in the governor's
budget, but that's not likely to happen," he said.
"It's up to us to get the funds to keep it operating.
For the 2003 session, the Legislature needs to put it into
the base."
State bonding
Jerry Stensing, vice chairman of the Big Bog Citizens
Advisory Board, said the group asked for $4.4 million in
state bonding in 2000, and got $2.2 million. Of that, $1.79
million remains. It will be used for a number of projects,
the largest $300,000 for professional engineering services
and $250,000 for constructing Big Bog boardwalks.
Also planned next year are a campground sanitation
building, utilities, wells, campground renovation, a
fish-cleaning house, road work, beach area picnic site
renovation, the boardwalks and others.
The group plans to go to the 2002 Legislature to ask for
the remaining $1.4 million needed to build the Big Bog
Visitor Center. Part of it is already done, with the
renovation of a former DNR Forestry Division Office near the
campground area.
"This is an investment by the state of Minnesota in
the future of our economy," Stensing said. "It is
a testament of people pulling together and working
together."
The idea for the park surfaced several years ago when the
walleye fishery on both Upper and Lower Red lakes collapsed.
In the winter of 1998, no businesses were open in Waskish,
remembers David Leonhardt, advisory committee chairman.
The new bonding will build an interpretive center on 80
acres of the park at the town of Waskish, Leonhardt said.
The main part of the park is 9,080 acres about 6 miles north
of Waskish along state Highway 72. There boardwalks will be
constructed over the bog.
Will draw visitors
Stensing said that state parks ranks third among the
state's $10 billion tourism industry, which provides 177,000
jobs.
"It is not unrealistic that we will see 100,000
visitors a year," he said of the Waskish attraction.
"That would provide 40 jobs and $2 million annually
into the region. It is an investment for economic
security."
While efforts are ongoing to recovery the walleye
fishery, Stensing said the Big Bog park will help draw
visitors to the area and diversify its economy. "We
made some mistakes with walleye fishing, but we learned. We
have a plan to maintain the environment, the economy and the
community."
But with projected economic growth, Beltrami County
Commissioner Quentin Fairbanks warned that the community
will also have to provide emergency services such as a
quick-responding ambulance, law enforcement and a
communications tower.
"It will create a lot of problems you haven't
thought about," Fairbanks said. "It's a whole new
ballgame from before - vehicle numbers are up. You need to
set up a task force."
Some of those problems are being addressed, said John
Winters, DNR regional parks supervisor in Bemidji, including
a shared radio tower for improved communications. "The
big thing is getting operational staff here."
A park management plan is now being drafted and will be
available for a public showing at Kelliher High School in
January, said Matt Langan, DNR state recreation area
planner. Themes are being developed to consider the area's
cultural and resources history.
"A bog walk will give accessibility to previously
inaccessible areas," he said. "Rehabilitating the
campground area will also be important."
Moe: A model for all
State Sen. Roger Moe, DFL-Erskine, who carried the bill
which created the park, said "what an outstanding model
this community is in looking at storm clouds and seeing the
silver lining.
"Everyone is to be commended," he added.
"A lot of these things we can't do alone - we do it
collectively as a family - that's our government."
The Waskish community "is determining where you want
to be in the future, and you're hitting the wave," Moe
said. "Recreational activities are right up there as
the baby boomers retire. They have money in their pockets
and time on their hands. They will be enjoying the natural
resource base."
The state isn't investing enough in its natural
resources, he said. "Our natural resource base is
profound in terms of the economy."
The project has been jump-started, "and we will just
continue with the next phase of it," Moe said in an
interview. "If you go by the local commitment, the
local involvement, the local activity, they're showing
unbelievable spirit to get on with this, help diversify the
economy here and provide these amenities for the pressures
that will come to bear on our natural resources."
Moe said he was "cautiously optimistic" about
securing the remaining $1.4 million in bonding for the
project. Providing operational funding "is an ongoing
concern," he added, "but once they get things up
and going, then pretty soon it develops a constituency
beyond just the local community." |
| ©The
Pioneer 2001 |
For
Peat’s Sake
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Proposed
State Park
To Preserve Bog
Peat bogs can be
home to numerous types of flora and fauna, as well as wildlife,
including moose, gray owls and mink. (ArtToday)
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The Associated Press
K E L L I H E
R, Minn., July 31 — Talk of the peat bogs of
Ireland and the crowds they drew convinced state Sen. Roger Moe that a
mammoth peat bog near Waskish on Upper Red Lake had potential as a new
state park.
Moe said he initially had balked at attending a meeting to discuss the proposed Big Bog State Park and Interpretive Center.
“At that meeting they talked about the peat bogs of Ireland and how people from all over Europe would travel there just to see those bogs,” Moe said. “And people will come from all over this country, too, to see this bog.”
Moe was among legislators, officials from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and members of the Upper Red Lake Area Association who attended a meeting in Kelliher last week to celebrate the launch of the park.
Bill Morrissey, director of Minnesota State Parks, said Big Bog has the potential to become the top drawing state park in Minnesota, becoming even more popular than the park system’s flagship Itasca State Park.
Potential
For a World-Class Park
The peat bog is home to numerous types of flora and fauna, including moose, gray owls and mink.
“[The Big Bog State Park] has the potential to be a world-class park,” Morrissey said of the park that will be established on state land near Waskish.
“Potentially, thousands of people will come here every year to see it and they will walk away with a better understanding and a greater appreciation of bogs,” Morrissey said.
Many people in the Waskish area see the Big Bog as a way back to economic prosperity after the collapse of the Red Lake walleye fishing industry, which had been the area’s economic mainstay for decades.
Moe, DFL-Erskine, and state Rep. Rod Skoe, DFL-Clearbrook, were commended for their support on the project, eventually helping to secure $2.17 million for Phase 1 of the Big Bog project.
Jerry Stensing, Joe Corcoran, David Leonhardt and others with the Upper Red Lake Area Association were commended for their efforts in initiating a concept design and securing a consulting firm to do a feasibility study.
Those efforts, Moe said, made the Big Bog effort stand out among other funding requests at the state level.
But not everyone in the audience shared Moe’s optimism.
Calling
For Protection
Kathryn Beaulieu, a member of the Red Lake Tribe, voiced her personal concerns about the “spiritual aspect” of the project.
“I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade,” Beaulieu said. “But I’m going to share some history with you that isn’t in the history books. One hundred and ten years ago, our ancestors never ceded Upper Red Lake. They wanted it to be preserved for future generations.”
More than three decades ago, the tribal council passed two resolutions opposing the creation of a state park on Upper Red Lake, Beaulieu said.
“The tribe is against anything that might pollute the waters of Red Lake,” Beaulieu said. “I would pray that fair-minded people would protect this site and would call upon the DNR to move that site off Red Lake because it will damage the lake.”
But Leonhardt said the project’s emphasis is on preserving natural resources and learning from them.
“We don’t want to damage them,” Leonhardt said. “The intrusion caused by the bog walks will be done in such a way that there will be as little damage done to the area as possible.”
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Peat Bogs in Danger
What is Peat?
Peat is made of incompletely decomposed plant remains, which
accumulate in waterlogged soils over thousands of years. It occurs
because the natural processes of decay are prevented by the acidic water
logging and depleted oxygen.
Peat has a very slow growth rate of no more than 1 mm per year. Areas
where peat accumulates are called peat bogs or peat lands. Different
types of bog have different names including blanket bogs and raised
bogs.
Why is Peat important?
The way peat is formed creates unique and fragile ecosystems, with
many highly adapted plant and animal species found only on peat bogs.
Peat land plants are highly specialised to survive in these poor
conditions. Certain mosses and carnivorous plants, such as the Sundew,
survive only on peat bogs.
Why are peat bogs in danger?
Why peat is an important growing medium
The value of peat as a medium for horticulture is indisputable. It
improves the structure of soil, and due to the way it is formed it has
high water retention properties, providing an ideal growing environment
for our garden plants.
Exploitation by a forestation, conversion to agriculture and
commercial peat extraction has destroyed much of our peat lands. In the
last century we lost 90% of our blanket bogs and 94% of our raised bogs.
Gardeners and horticulture use a staggering 2.55 million cubic meters of
peat each year. In the UK there is less than 9,500 acres of near natural
raised bog left.
David Bellamy said, "We criticize people from the third world
countries for not conserving their rainforests, but when it comes to our
peat bogs which are actually a rarer habitat than the tropical
rainforest, we are doing a much worse job". (The Times, Saturday
November 25, 2000).
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