The Bogs Around Us

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Bogs are found almost all around the globe, influencing the lives of tribes and nations living next to them. For the people of the Iron Age in Northern Europe, their importance was impeccable. For the „barbarians“ outside the borders of Rome, bogs had a spiritual significance. They functioned as barriers between the physical and the supernatural world, seen as gateways to transport sacrificial offerings to their Gods. They were incredibly sacred because these specific places of the sacrifice were considered as direct portals to the Realms of the Gods.

                                                                                                        Video by Raimo Kerme


This has given literary inspirations to poets and writers all over the world, the following is a poem by Seamus Heaney




I lay waiting
between turf-face and demesne wall,

between heathery levels

and glass-toothed stone.



My body was braille

for the creeping influences:

dawn suns groped over my head

and cooled at my feet,

through my fabrics and skins
the seeps of winter
digested me,
the illiterate roots

pondered and died
in the cavings
of stomach and socket.
I lay waiting

on the gravel bottom,
my brain darkening,
a jar of spawn
fermenting underground

dreams of Baltic amber.
Bruised berries under my nails,

the vital hoard reducing

in the crock of the pelvis.



My diadem grew carious,

gemstones dropped

in the peat floe

like the bearings of history.

My sash was a black glacier
wrinkling, dyed weaves
and phoenician stitchwork
retted on my breasts'

soft moraines.
I knew winter cold
like the nuzzle of fjords
at my thighs–

the soaked fledge, the heavy
swaddle of hides.



































Over time the importance of bogs has changed to humans. We no longer see them as sacrificial holy grounds. Nevertheless, scientists, today can learn about earlier cultures though archeological finds from bogs. In addition, bogs have been drained and mined for peat, which once dried, can be used as fuel. It is highly flammable and can burn even when its wet as long as there is access to oxygen, even when in the underground. Peat fires can burn for extended periods of time which makes it into a big fire hazard.

Photo by Mari Meparishvili

Mining bogs can be seen as a threat to biodiversity. Bogs are the natural habitat to various species like the Western capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus), bog rush (Juncus stygius) and the moor frog (Rana arvalis).

Photo by Mari Meparishvili
Another effect produced by mining the bogs is that once dried, the living sphagnum dies and the bacteria starts digesting the organic material, which in turn begins leaking immense amounts of carbon dioxide. According to a 2015 report by Nordic Council of Ministers, 8 million metric tons of greenhouse gasses is leaking to the atmosphere through bogs. In Estonia, the government wants to reverse the damage that has been done in the past by building dams and allowing spring snowmelt and rainwater to fill the previously mined bog fields.


Video by Raimo Kerme

If successful, the project "LIFE Mires" will be expanded to abandoned peatlands in Poland, Lithuania, Germany, and Latvia.





Photo by Mari Meparishvili
Mysterious and dangerous to humans, bogs with their complex and unique ecosystem are a hub of life for insects, animals and plants alike. Our team went on to take a look at an icy bog alongside Tallinn to experience some of its charms.
Photo by Mari Meparisvili

Amazing views from the top of the lookout.

Photo by Raimo Kerme

Photo by Raimo Kerme


 
Photos by Mari Meparishvili 
                                                                                                                  By Raimo Kerme

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