Can Analysis of Historic Lagg Forms Be of Use in the Restoration of Highly Altered Raised Bogs? Examples from Burns Bog, British Columbia
Natural bogs are generally surrounded by a zone of hydrologic, hydrochemical, and ecological gradients called a lagg. In laggs, large changes over short lateral distances result in distinctive ecological gradients and vegetation patterns. Part of the restoration planning challenge for Burns Bog involves recreating such water and chemistry gradients to establish and maintain conditions for appropriate plant and animal communities that reflect natural transitions from nutrient poor bog to adjacent mineral soil influenced wetlands. We present a conceptual model inferred from historic air photos and vegetation maps from the margins of Burns Bog and theorize how particular vegetation represents the hydrological and hydrochemical gradients of the past that existed in transition to surrounding landscapes. Understanding lagg ecosystems and how they function is important not only to restoring the ecological integrity of Burns Bog, but also to developing a conceptual model useful for predicting and interpreting these gradients in other peatlands.