Tamarack Swamp is a boreal (non-glacial) bog in Sproul State Forest, in

Clinton County, Pennsylvania Clinton County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 37,450. Its county seat is Lock Haven. The county was created on June 21, 1839, from parts of Centre and Lycoming Counties. Its name is ...

, in the United States. It is named for the

tamarack ''Larix laricina'', commonly known as the tamarack, hackmatack, eastern larch, black larch, red larch, or American larch, is a species of larch native to Canada, from eastern Yukon and Inuvik, Northwest Territories east to Newfoundland, and als ...

tree, which inhabits the wetland. Numerous other species of plants and animals also inhabit the wetland. The total area of the wetland is 4000 acres. The Tamarack Swamp Natural Area is located in the wetland.

Location and description

Tamarack Swamp is located in northern Clinton County, Pennsylvania. It is northeast of the community of

Tamarack ''Larix laricina'', commonly known as the tamarack, hackmatack, eastern larch, black larch, red larch, or American larch, is a species of larch native to Canada, from eastern Yukon and Inuvik, Northwest Territories east to Newfoundland, and als ...

and north of the borough of Renovo and close to Pennsylvania Route 144, which is near the western edge of the wetland. The wetland has a total area of 4000 acres. Its elevation is above sea level. Tamarack Swamp serves as the

headwaters The headwaters of a river or stream is the farthest place in that river or stream from its estuary or downstream confluence with another river, as measured along the course of the river. It is also known as a river's source. Definition The ...

Drury Run Drury Run (also known as Drury's Run) is a tributary of the West Branch Susquehanna River in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is long and its watershed is 11.5 square miles in area, most of which is forest. The stream's tribu ...

. Kettle Creek is located to the north of the wetland.

Biology

Tamarack Swamp is home to the

tree, which is the only

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, ...

conifer in Pennsylvania. Most of the trees in it are boreal conifers, though black spruce, and

balsam fir ''Abies balsamea'' or balsam fir is a North American fir, native to most of eastern and central Canada (Newfoundland west to central Alberta) and the northeastern United States (Minnesota east to Maine, and south in the Appalachian Mountains to ...

are also species of trees that live in the wetland. Plants living in the wetland include Hooker's orchid,

soft-leaved sedge ''Carex montana'', also called mountain or soft-leaved sedge, is a species of grass of the genus ''Carex''. It is most commonly found in Europe and Central Russia. It is native to most countries in Europe including the UK, Germany, France and S ...

and small floating manna grass. Hemlock,

Sphagnum ''Sphagnum'' is a genus of approximately 380 accepted species of mosses, commonly known as sphagnum moss, peat moss, also bog moss and quacker moss (although that term is also sometimes used for peat). Accumulations of ''Sphagnum'' can store wa ...

mosses, and some Canadian fauna were also found in Tamarack Swamp in the early 1900s, with hemlocks being found as late as 1940. Tamarack Swamp is considered an Important Bird Area by Audubon Pennsylvania. Bird species in the wetland include '' Aegolius acadicus'', '' Buteo platypterus'', '' Coccyzus erythropthalmus'', ''

Empidonax alnorum The alder flycatcher (''Empidonax alnorum'') is a small insect-eating bird of the tyrant flycatcher family. The genus name ''Empidonax'' is from Ancient Greek ''empis'', "gnat", and ''anax'', "master". The specific ''alnorum'' is Latin and means ...

'', ''

Melospiza georgiana The swamp sparrow (''Melospiza georgiana'') is a medium-sized New World sparrow related to the song sparrow. Description Measurements: * Length: 4.7-5.9 in (12-15 cm) * Weight: 0.5-0.8 oz (15-23 g) * Wingspan: 7.1-7.5 in (18-19 cm) ...

'', ''

Myiarchus crinitus The great crested flycatcher (''Myiarchus crinitus'') is a large insect-eating bird of the tyrant flycatcher family. It is the most widespread member of the genus ''Myiarchus'' in North America, and is found over most of the eastern and mid-weste ...

'', ''

Parkesia noveboracensis The northern waterthrush (''Parkesia noveboracensis'') is a species of ground-feeding migratory New World warbler of the genus ''Parkesia''. It breeds in the northern part of North America in Canada and the northern United States including Alaska ...

'', '' Rallus limicola'', and '' Vermivora chrysoptera''. Five rare species of dragonfly are found in the area.

Black bear Black bear or Blackbear may refer to: Animals * American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species * Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species Music * Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...

s live in Tamarack Swamp, as well as red-spotted newts and

wood frog ''Lithobates sylvaticus'' or ''Rana sylvatica'', commonly known as the wood frog, is a frog species that has a broad distribution over North America, extending from the boreal forest of the north to the southern Appalachians, with several nota ...

s. Meadows of sedge and the stumps of

white pine ''Pinus'', the pines, is a genus of approximately 111 extant tree and shrub species. The genus is currently split into two subgenera: subgenus ''Pinus'' (hard pines), and subgenus ''Strobus'' (soft pines). Each of the subgenera have been further ...

trees occupy the southern part of Tamarack Swamp. There are also

cattail ''Typha'' is a genus of about 30 species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae. These plants have a variety of common names, in British English as bulrush or reedmace, in American English as reed, cattail, or punks, in ...

s and

alder Alders are trees comprising the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few sp ...

s in the southern part of the wetland. The northern borders of the wetland are home to a population of

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

and

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

oaks. The carnivorous

sundew ''Drosera'', which is commonly known as the sundews, is one of the largest genera of carnivorous plants, with at least 194 species. 2 volumes. These members of the family Droseraceae lure, capture, and digest insects using stalked mucilaginou ...

plant is also found in the wetland.

History

In around 1827, Alexander Kelly, Montgomery Kelly, George Kelly, and Samuel Kelly settled on the western side of Tamarack Swamp. In approximately 1865, James Hennessy discovered several

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult ma ...

antlers buried in the wetland, indicating that moose once lived there. In a 1925 book by Francis R. Cope, Tamarack Swamp was mentioned. Cope referred to the wetland as "a little oasis in the desert...". In the 1990s, the

Western Pennsylvania Conservancy The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC) is a private nonprofit conservation organization founded in 1932 and headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. WPC has contributed land to 12 state parks and conserved more than a quarter million acres o ...

added over 9400 acres to Sproul State Forest. This land includes Tamarack Swamp. In the early 1900s, parts of Tamarack Swamp, such as the southern part have been affected by logging and development. Logging was done as late as the 1940s, when Hicks Jennings cut down the only remaining virgin spruce in Tamarack Swamp. By 1947, the tamarack and black spruce trees in the wetland were significantly less healthy than they had been around 1900. The bird species

olive-sided flycatcher The olive-sided flycatcher (''Contopus cooperi'') is a small to medium sized passerine bird in the family Tyrannidae, the Tyrant flycatcher family. It is a migratory species that travels from South to North America to breed during the summer. It ...

brown creeper The brown creeper (''Certhia americana''), also known as the American treecreeper, is a small songbird, the only North American member of the treecreeper family Certhiidae. Description Adults are brown on the upper parts with light spotting, r ...

, and

winter wren The winter wren (''Troglodytes hiemalis'') is a very small North American bird and a member of the mainly New World wren family Troglodytidae. It was once lumped with the Pacific wren (''Troglodytes pacificus'') of western North America and th ...

have become extinct in the wetland since 1925. A report from the late 1940s mentioned that

pitcher plant Pitcher plants are several different carnivorous plants which have modified leaves known as pitfall traps—a prey-trapping mechanism featuring a deep cavity filled with digestive liquid. The traps of what are considered to be "true" pitcher p ...

s in the wetland.

Uses

There are plans to develop the Tamarack Swamp area. There are also plans to drill for

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

and

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

in the wetland. Natural gas pipelines have been laid in the swamp. The land that Tamarack Swamp is situated on has multiple owners. A total of 267 acres of the wetland forms the Tamarack Swamp Natural Area. A Natural Heritage Inventory in 2000 called Tamarack Swap "one of the most unique natural features in the county '' linton County'". The

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency in ...

has designated one-third of the wetland as the Tamarack Swamp Natural Area DA. Tamarack Swamp is named one of the top 100 birding sites in Pennsylvania by the

Pennsylvania Game Commission The Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) is the state agency responsible for wildlife conservation and management in Pennsylvania in the United States. It was originally founded years ago and currently utilizes more than 700 full-time employees and ...

References

External links

Image
{{coord, 41.423, -77.840, type:landmark_region:US-PA_dim:2000, display=title Appalachian bogs Landforms of Clinton County, Pennsylvania Bogs of Pennsylvania

Location and description

Biology

History

Uses

See also

References

External links