Secrets of the mini-bog

Keweenaw Wild Ones and friends are invited to tour the peat mesocosm, a long-standing experiment at the U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station in Houghton.

Researchers, including our guide, ecologist Rachel Tarpey (pictured), have been putting several bins of peat through their paces, measuring how varying conditions could affect their ecology.

This is important, since peat bogs sequester disproportionately massive amounts of carbon, and for all concerned it would probably be best if that carbon stayed put.