Buckeye Lake's island bog shrinking into extinction

From Cleveland Plain Dealer: Buckeye Lake's island bog shrinking into extinction

By Wendy Pramik Special to The Plain Dealer

The youngest of the group was the bravest. Twenty-one-year-old Amber Scimone rolled up a pink shirtsleeve to her elbow and plunged her finely manicured fingernails into the dead vegetation.

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The hole was deep, reaching more than 30 feet below the surface of Cranberry Bog in Buckeye Lake. Botanists drilled it years earlier to measure the depth of Ohio's only floating island. Removing the top layer of lush plants revealed the spongy bog mat made of decaying moss.

"It was really cold and creepy," said Scimone, of West Farmington, in Trumbull County. "It felt like I stuck my hand into something 13,000 years old."

Her estimate isn't far off: Plants in the bog are relics of the last Ice Age, with roots that extend back more than 10,000 years ago.

You, too, can stick your hand into this soggy, historically significant ecosystem. But hurry -- it won't be around forever.

Containing many species of rare ferns, delicate orchids and carnivorous pitcher plants, Cranberry Bog State Nature Preserve is a small, squishy island that floats in 3,100-acre Buckeye Lake, 35 miles east of Columbus.

The bog has floated on the lake's surface for about 180 years, formed by a combination of natural and man-made occurrences. One day, in the not-too-distant future, it will vanish as completely as it appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.

"It's an anomaly in nature," said Greg Seymour, who has managed the preserve for more than two decades for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. "You can't build a wall around it or isolate it. It was going to die eventually, and that's what's happening."

Cranberry Bog State Nature Preserve

Getting there:The nature preserve is located within Buckeye Lake State Park in Millersport, about 30 miles east of Columbus. The easiest route from Cleveland is via I-71 south, I-270 east and I-70 east, exiting at Exit 129.

Acquiring a permit: Visitors to the Cranberry Bog State Nature Preserve in Buckeye Lake must first acquire a free permit from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Natural Areas and Preserves. Applications are available on the department’s website. Permits require up to two weeks to process.

Gaining access: The Greater Buckeye Lake Historical Society offers boat transportation to the bog and on-site tours from May through October. The tour costs $12 per person; free, children 5 and younger. It’s a suggested donation and pays for a six-minute boat ride to the island and back, as well as a 30-minute narrated tour while on the bog. Information: 740-929-1998.

Museum at the Lake: The Greater Buckeye Lake Historical Society operates the Museum at the Lake at 4729 Walnut Road in the village of Buckeye Lake. The museum contains an assortment of items commemorating the rich history of the area, including a car from the Rocket Ship ride that soared over of the old Buckeye Lake amusement park.

The museum offers tours of Buckeye Lake aboard a 40-person pontoon boat at 2 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday from May through October. Cost is a suggested donation of $10; free, children 5 and younger. Information: 740-929-1998. In the meantime, the state helps guide tourists and other inquisitive folk through the preserve. Each year, the department holds an "open house" to showcase the preserve's unique ecosystem. This year's event occurred on June 19, when hundreds of nature enthusiasts and curiosity seekers traversed the bog on a protective boardwalk.

It's a tough ticket. Visitors must gain entry through a lottery. The natural resources department annually receives more requests than the number of people it can accommodate, which is about 400.

The lottery isn't the only way to visit Cranberry Bog, however. From May through October, the Greater Buckeye Lake Historical Society, located in the village of Buckeye Lake, works with the state to offer guided tours. Earlier this month, I joined a group of women from the Cleveland area on the historical society tour.

Why all the fuss?

Most natural bogs exist around the edges of lakes, but not Cranberry Bog -- making it one of the most unique and fascinating natural areas in the United States.

J-me Braig, director of the historical society, led our bog tour. The suggested donation of $12 helps fuel the society's pontoon boat as well as operate the 5,400-square-foot Museum at the Lake, which contains photos of the rare plants and flowers that grow on the island.

The ride took six minutes from the ramp at Buckeye Lake State Park to the dock at the bog, 100 yards off the north shore of the lake. As Braig steered the 47-foot Queen of the Lake 2, she told us about picking cranberries on the bog with her grandmother.

"There's only one of its kind in the world, and this is it," Braig said. "It's very cool that you're going to see it today."

The creation of Cranberry Bog began thousands of years ago when glaciers moved into Ohio, pushing trees and a host of plants from the north. As the glaciers retreated, lakes, ponds and swamps formed in their wake.

American Indians, residing in what are now Licking, Fairfield and Perry counties, called the marshy land the "Big Swamp."

In the 1820s, a canal system was constructed through the mushy land. Engineers flooded the valley to create a reservoir to supply water to the canal. That buried the marshland, and only a 50-acre portion survived. It rose to the surface and formed the spongelike island made of buoyant sphagnum moss.

"If we were to shred it up and sell it in a store, it would be just like peat moss," Seymour said.

In 1894, the entire area became a public park, and the reservoir was renamed Buckeye Lake.

For a long time, the floating island was referred to as Cranberry Marsh because of the red berries that prospered there. While humans no longer pick them, the cranberries still nourish visiting birds.

In 1973, the island was dedicated as a state nature preserve. Today, it's one of Ohio's 134 state nature preserves, where conservation of fragile landscapes trumps recreation.

The bog is deteriorating for a number of reasons due to nature and man. Being in a lake is causing it to erode, as is the yearly freezing and thawing process.

Waves from passing boats cause erosion as well, despite the no-wake zone in effect around the island. Studies have been performed to attempt to reduce this decay, but nothing is feasible, Seymour said.

"In the last 40 years, the island shrank, from around 20 acres to less than 10 acres today," said Seymour. "If this rate were to continue, it will not exist in another 40 years.

"I've been responsible for it for 20 years, and I'll be sad when it's gone," he added.

The Cleveland-area tour group I joined spent half an hour on the island, walking on the zigzagging boardwalk. Engraved in the wood are the names of those who've helped pay for the protective path.

"If you were to step off, it would feel like you're walking on a water bed," Braig said. Once the path reaches a dead end, you turn around and walk back to the dock.

"Don't touch the plants," said Braig, as a reminder to protect the rare species as well as a precaution against touching the blister-inducing poison sumac that's abundant on the island.

We passed magenta orchids and white-flowering cranberries that bloom through August. The popular purple pitcher plant blooms through July. As its name suggests, its leaves form the shape of a pitcher, enabling it to hold water and capture insects, which it digests as nutrients.

Though guests are discouraged from touching plants, Braig asked if any in the group wanted to feel the muck. Scimone was the only volunteer. She carefully knelt on the boardwalk and stuck her arm over the side, into the heart of the protected island.

Upon extricating her arm, Scimone noted it was covered in brown slime up to her elbow. "It smelled fresh," she said.

Brook Park resident Becky Burdorff, who organized the trip for her friends, at first thought Cranberry Bog was a hoax when she read about it.

"Then when I started learning more about it, I thought this place is really cool and my girls are going to love this," she said. "And that's how we ended up here."