Sunken Forest

On July 3rd, I went to Fire Island off the coast of Long Island, NY. While we were there, we took some time to walk through the Sunken Forest, which is a several hundred year-old patch of forest that is protected from the ocean water by dunes.
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Bogs! Just talking about them makes me cringe from thoughts of all the bugs that could bite me. Bogs are a type of wetland that is made up of acidic peat. Older bogs will have less water on the surface as the peat builds up. Eventually, the bog may fill up completely with peat and other matter and be completely solid.

I visited a bog when I was at Bucknell University for undergraduate and it was nearly completely covered in vegetation, but mostly shrubs and underbrush. We could stand on the bog and jump to make it undulate and move because underneath the peat was water. Next time I go back, it might be more solid because more peat has accumulated to absorb and overtake the water layer.

The boggy areas in the Sunken Forest had mostly trees that were tolerant to being soaked. The canopy was also pretty much closed with all the branches from the trees extending out quite far.

We took a lot of pictures on the trail through the forest. Here are some of the highlights:

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