Photo's description:

Southern Appalachian bogs are one of the rarest habitats in North America, and home to numerous rare plants and animals. These lands are currently owned by myriad people and organizations, including the National Park Service, N.C. Forest Service, The Nature Conservancy and private individuals. In an effort to bring together these managers with experts from a variety of bog-related fields, the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program and Division of Parks and Recreation, The Nature Conservancy, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service recently convened the Bog Learning Network. The goal of the network is to bring together bog managers with botanists, wildlife biologists, hydrologists, and other experts to help answer some of the fundamental questions about bog management, and provide bog managers with the tools they need to do their job as well as possible. In addition to providing a home for some of the rarest plants and animals in the southeast, bogs provide habitat for a variety of songbirds and game animals. They also perform a variety of services that benefit humans, including storing floodwater and releasing water slowly over time – helping ameliorate the impacts of flood and drought; and filtering pollutants from water. Photo credit: Gary Peeples/USFWS, Asheville Field Office