Bergen Swamp Preservation Society

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Bergen Swamp Preservation Society Preserve holdings include Bergen Swamp, Zurich Bog, Taylor Marsh, Hotchkiss Preserve, and Slater Preserve.

The Bergen Swamp Preservation Society was incorporated on June 19th, 1936 as an educational association to preserve inviolate for all time in their natural state the lands known as Bergen Swamp, and such other swamps, forests and wild lands owned by BSPS.

09/29/2026

There’s a beautiful wooded property near my home. At least once a week, I walk its trails.

A lot of people would marvel at these woods and possibly consider the land “pristine.”

But there’s something that might change their mind.

Almost no seedlings or saplings are growing under the big oaks. In some places, the forest floor is completely empty.

Years ago, I recognized this feature of these woods but had no idea why it looked that way. It was only when I started paying attention to the behavior of a particular animal that I realized what was going on.

Deer were eating all the young trees.

Amazing, I thought to myself. Deer don’t just eat hostas and tulips. They eat the future forest.

Rather than leave it at that, I started thinking: What might these woods look like without all this deer pressure? Would the understory actually recover?

Turns out, we don’t have to wonder, because I found good evidence.

In a brand-new video, I show you what a forest looks like after 25 years without deer.

[Link in comments.]

This past Saturday, September 26, we celebrated an exciting milestone for Zurich Bog: the dedication of its approximatel...
09/28/2026

This past Saturday, September 26, we celebrated an exciting milestone for Zurich Bog: the dedication of its approximately 20-acre old-growth forest as part of the Old-Growth Forest Network.

We were delighted to be joined by Sarah Robb-Grieco, Northeast Regional Manager for the Old-Growth Forest Network, as we commemorated this remarkable forest and then headed out for a walk to explore what makes Zurich Bog such an extraordinary place. The Old-Growth Forest Network works nationally to identify and protect exceptional native forests so they can remain intact for future generations.

Our walk began in the bog, where we stopped to look at some of the plants that make Zurich so distinctive — including ferns, cotton grass, pitcher plants and other species adapted to its unusual wetland environment. Zurich Bog itself is a nearly 490-acre National Natural Landmark containing northern sphagnum bog and bog-forest communities that are increasingly uncommon in this part of New York.

From there, we climbed onto the glacial drumlin and entered the old-growth forest. As we walked, we looked for the features that tell the story of a forest that has been developing naturally for generations: large mature trees, trees of many different ages and sizes, standing dead trees, fallen and decomposing logs, canopy openings, and the characteristic pit-and-mound topography created when large trees tip over. The roots lift soil into a mound while the uprooted root mass leaves a pit behind. Over decades and centuries, those disturbances create a wonderfully uneven forest floor and many different microhabitats for plants, fungi, insects and other organisms. These structural characteristics are among the important signs of older, naturally developing forests.

There were discoveries everywhere we looked were beautiful ferns, beech, hemlock, birch and other trees, enormous pieces of decaying wood returning nutrients to the forest, and even colonies of the wonderfully named “boogie-woogie aphids,” or beech blight aphids, covered in their white waxy secretions on beech. It was a great reminder that an old-growth forest is much more than a collection of large trees. It is an entire living system, from the canopy all the way down to the fungi, insects, soil and decomposing wood beneath our feet.

About 17 of us made the journey together, sharing observations, questions and plenty of enthusiasm along the way. It was a wonderful day of science, exploration and appreciation for a place that has been quietly developing for generations.

We are incredibly fortunate to have a forest like this within Zurich Bog, and its inclusion in the Old-Growth Forest Network gives us another reason to recognize how important it is to protect places where natural ecological processes can continue uninterrupted.

A sincere thank-you to the Old-Growth Forest Network, everyone who participated in the dedication and walk, and all of the people who have helped protect and steward Zurich Bog through the years.

Here’s to protecting these extraordinary forests and to allowing some places to simply grow old.

This is a rather interesting native bee, the Parnassia Miner Bee (Andrena parnassiae). It's found only where Grass-of-Pa...
09/12/2026

This is a rather interesting native bee, the Parnassia Miner Bee (Andrena parnassiae). It's found only where Grass-of-Parnassus lives – calcareous fens and other wet, alkaline meadows and wetlands. The bee collects pollen which it provides to its larvae in underground nests. The bees emerge in August when the Grass-of Parnassus blooms. The species has a limited occurrence in New York and is a species of concern. This bee was photographed at a hillside seep in our Slater Preserve.

Hover flies are incredible little insects that often mimic the yellow and black markings of bees and wasps, even though ...
09/01/2026

Hover flies are incredible little insects that often mimic the yellow and black markings of bees and wasps, even though they are actually flies. Look closely and you can spot one clue: hover flies have just one functional pair of wings, while bees and wasps have two pairs. As adults move from flower to flower feeding on nectar and pollen, many species contribute to pollination, while the larvae of some species are important predators of aphids and other small insects. A tiny visitor with a surprisingly important role in the biodiversity of Bergen Swamp!

Small-flowered false foxglove (Agalinis paupercula) adds a splash of delicate lilac to the wetlands of Bergen Swamp. Thi...
08/31/2026

Small-flowered false foxglove (Agalinis paupercula) adds a splash of delicate lilac to the wetlands of Bergen Swamp. This native wildflower thrives in wet, open habitats, including the unique marl fen communities found within the preserve. Another beautiful reminder that some of Bergen Swamp’s tiny treasures.

Toads are an important part of the forest and wetland food web, feeding on insects and other small invertebrates while a...
08/29/2026

Toads are an important part of the forest and wetland food web, feeding on insects and other small invertebrates while also providing food for larger wildlife.

Another reminder to slow down, look closely, and see who is sharing the trail with you.

As summer transitions to fall, yellow seems to suddenly appear everywhere. Along roadsides, across old fields, in wetlan...
08/28/2026

As summer transitions to fall, yellow seems to suddenly appear everywhere. Along roadsides, across old fields, in wetlands, and even in the bog, there are waves of yellow flowers. Goldenrods are certainly part of it, but so are sunflowers, cinquefoils, beggar-ticks, black-eyed Susans, and other late-blooming plants.

I became even more aware of it recently while helping with field research involving goldenrod. Spending hours looking closely at plants, identifying and counting them, and paying attention to where different species were growing made me start noticing yellow everywhere.

Then, while hiking, I found myself wondering: Why are there so many yellow flowers this time of year?

So I went home and started digging. As is usually the case with ecology, there isn't one simple answer. Part of what we're seeing is phenology, the timing of biological events such as flowering, migration, emergence, and reproduction. Plants don't all flower at once. As the seasons progress, the composition of the flowering community changes. By late summer and early fall, many earlier-flowering plants have finished while goldenrods and numerous other late-season species are reaching their peak.

But while I was hunting through journal articles, I kept thinking about something Robin Wall Kimmerer wrote in Braiding Sweetgrass.

In “Asters and Goldenrod,” Kimmerer describes noticing the brilliant purple of New England asters among the deep gold of goldenrod and wondering why the two so often appear together and why they are so striking when they do. Rather than dismissing beauty as something separate from science, she wondered whether there might be biology behind what she was seeing.

Her observation led her to consider the flowers from another perspective: What does that same meadow look like to a bee?

Bees don't see flowers the way we do. Their vision is sensitive to ultraviolet, blue, and green wavelengths, and flowers can contain ultraviolet patterns completely invisible to us. Kimmerer explored the possibility that the striking contrast between purple asters and yellow goldenrod might make the flowers particularly conspicuous to pollinators.

That sent me back to the scientific literature. I couldn't find a study demonstrating that asters and goldenrods grow together specifically because their purple-and-yellow combination attracts more pollinators. But I did find research that makes the question fascinating.

Studies have found that flower color and flowering phenology can help shape plant–pollinator interactions. Researchers have also investigated how seasonality, floral color, surrounding vegetation, and bee vision affect the conspicuousness of flowers. Studies of goldenrods have demonstrated connections among flowering time, insect visitation, and reproductive success.

And there is another important piece to the story: goldenrod is an important late-season floral resource. As the flowering community changes toward the end of summer, goldenrods provide pollen and nectar to bees and other flower-visiting insects at a time when many earlier-blooming plants have already finished flowering.

So perhaps all that yellow isn't explained by one thing at all.

What we are seeing is the visible expression of many ecological processes converging at the same time: phenology, flower color, pollinator perception, plant reproduction, and ecological interactions, all shaped by evolution. Late-blooming plants are completing their reproductive cycles during a narrowing seasonal window, and their bright yellow flowers may function almost like neon signs, helping them stand out to pollinators as both flowering plants and active pollinators become less abundant.

Works Cited

Albor, C., Ashman, T.-L., Stanley, A. M., Martel, C., & Arceo-Gómez, G. (2022). Flower colour and flowering phenology mediate plant–pollinator interaction assembly in a diverse co-flowering community. Functional Ecology, 36, 2456–2468. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.14142

Gross, R. S., & Werner, P. A. (1983). Relationships among flowering phenology, insect visitors, and seed-set of individuals: Experimental studies on four co-occurring species of goldenrod (Solidago: Compositae). Ecological Monographs, 53(1), 95–117. https://doi.org/10.2307/1942589

Martins, A. E., Camargo, M. G. G., & Morellato, L. P. C. (2021). Flowering phenology and the influence of seasonality in flower conspicuousness for bees. Frontiers in Plant Science, 11, 594538. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.594538

Kimmerer, R. W. (2013). “Asters and Goldenrod.” In Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed Editions.

Photo Credit: Shelley Walker, Location: Bergen Swamp.

There is something about round-leaved sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) that makes me stop and look every time I find it gro...
08/26/2026

There is something about round-leaved sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) that makes me stop and look every time I find it growing among the Sphagnum. It is such a tiny plant, but the closer you look, the more complicated its little world becomes.

The bog doesn't offer much in the way of nitrogen and other nutrients, so the sundew has found another way, those beautiful sparkling droplets aren't dew at all, but sticky mucilage designed to capture tiny insects. And apparently even that isn't the end of the story, because bog-dwelling ants have been observed stealing insects right off the sundew's leaves, essentially robbing a carnivorous plant of its dinner.

Then there is an entirely different story happening underground, where researchers have found fungal endophytes and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi living within sundew roots, and we are still learning exactly what those relationships mean.

I think that is what I love about looking closely at a bog, you start with one tiny plant sparkling in the Sphagnum, and suddenly you are looking at connections between plants, mosses, fungi, insects, nutrients, competition, and survival.

Despite its delicate clusters of creamy white flowers, Death Camas is a plant that deserves both admiration and caution....
08/26/2026

Despite its delicate clusters of creamy white flowers, Death Camas is a plant that deserves both admiration and caution. This native North American wildflower belongs to the Melanthiaceae family and can be found growing in meadows, grasslands, open forests, and other sunny habitats.

Its ominous common name is well earned. All parts of Death Camas are poisonous, containing potent steroidal alkaloids that can affect the nervous and cardiovascular systems if eaten. The plant is especially important to recognize because its narrow, grass-like leaves and underground bulb can potentially be confused with edible plants such as wild onions. One useful clue: Death Camas does not have the characteristic onion or garlic smell produced when Allium leaves or bulbs are crushed.

Ecologically, however, "poisonous" certainly doesn't mean "without value." Its flowers are visited by insects, and the species is part of the biodiversity of the native plant communities in which it occurs. Toxic compounds are also a fascinating example of plant chemical defense plants cannot run away from herbivores, so many species have evolved chemistry that makes them considerably less appealing to eat.

Beautiful day in Bergen Swamp. Found a new friend.
08/18/2026

Beautiful day in Bergen Swamp. Found a new friend.

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P. O. Box 460
Bergen, NY
14416

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+15855487304

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