New Paugussett Bog Walk at Wiacek Meadows

Securing the last board

The Paugussett Trail has a new 85-foot bog walk to address the lower section of the seasonal wet area near Meadow Street (see previous post).  Mark Vollaro and Terry Gallagher purchased the 2x8" and 5x5" boards at Home Depot and rented a truck to drop the materials at the Meadow Street trailhead. Terry returned to cut the 8-foot 5x5's into thirds to be used as "sleepers." A couple days later, Mark and Ray used the Trails Gator to cart the boards closer to the work site. Getting the building materials was at least half of the job right there.  Over the next few days, I (Teresa) finished the job by laying out the boards, leveling them up, and securing them with screws. 

Two stacks of Home Depot lumber at the Meadow St. trailhead

Even though the Wiacek Meadows Open Space is at the top of a  broad hill,  there is a solid layer of hardpan a few inches down that resists both water and tree roots. During the wet season, that thin layer of topsoil is often waterlogged because the water cannot penetrate the hardpan, but during the summer it can become bone dry since it's at the top of a hill. During peak hiking season, the trail is normally dry and you would never know the trail gets wets. For this reason, the existing tread was preserved for summer hiking and the new bog walk was set off to the side for use when the rains come. 

The Pin Oak Grove

The bog walk curves through a grove of large Pin Oaks, a tree that tolerates poorly drained sites, which this certainly is. Pin Oaks are used in landscaping because they do well on human-impacted sites, but are less commonly noticed in their natural settings. They can be identified by the lowest branches pointing towards the ground, and their sharp pointy leaves that are cut more deeply than other oaks. These Pin Oaks are particularly large for this area. Some of the tops were damaged from the August 3 microburst.