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Bog Boardwalk

Follow the Highland/Bog Loop through the wooded back 40 acres of the Arboretum, and eventually you will emerge in a clearing of sorts, where a fiberglass boardwalk zigzags over marshy ground. The thickets of leatherleaf and swamp azalea on either side provide perches for jewel-colored dragonflies and red-winged blackbirds, while frogs peek up from the soggy blanket of sphagnum moss below. Beneath this layer of moss—which jiggles when disturbed, giving our “quaking bog” its name—the water is 16-20 feet deep and very acidic; the flora and fauna that live in the bog must be specially adapted. To learn more about this fascinating ecosystem, make a visit and read the information panel mounted on the boardwalk! The boardwalk was built in 2015 and funded by a Community Preservation Act grant, a substantial private donation, and a contribution from the Friends of the Acton Arboretum.