5 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Bogs

On International Bog Day, learn more about these misty, mysterious ecological heavyweights that filter water, buffer communities from harm, and store carbon

Authors: Alex Clayton Moya

A misty and mysterious-looking wetland at dawn, with sparse pine trees reflected in the calm waters of a still, dark pond amid a blanket of soft blue and gray fog. Low vegetation frames the foreground beneath a pale, cloud-streaked sky. — Although bogs, such as this one in Estonia, have long been perceived as ethereal, they are quiet ecological powerhouses, providing nature-based buffers from floods and wildfires, filtering water, and storing carbon pollution.

Article July 20, 2026

Pew Points

Bogs: The Type of Ecological Multitasker Earth Needs Most

Bogs are a type of peatland that store vast amounts of climate-warming carbon accumulated over thousands of years.
Healthy bogs help protect communities by filtering pollutants from water, reducing flood and wildfire impacts, and supporting biodiversity.
Bogs act as natural archives, preserving ancient artifacts and organic materials that help scientists understand how people, ecosystems, and climates have changed over time.

Bogs may conjure images of fog, folklore, and lurking creatures, but in fact, they are dynamic habitats that perform some of the planet’s most important ecological work.

Part of a broader family of wetlands called peatlands, these mossy, freshwater ecosystems are like natural sponges, soaking up water and locking away carbon in layers of soil and silt built over millennia and in some cases, extending deep enough to bury a four-story building.

The world’s largest bogs span Russia and Canada and blanket northern Europe. In the U.S., they are found mainly in the Northeast and Great Lakes regions—particularly Minnesota and Wisconsin, but also in vast peatland landscapes in Alaska and in smaller pockets from the Appalachian Mountains to the South Atlantic Coastal Plain.

July 26 is International Bog Day. Here’s five facts that make these habitats worth celebrating.

Bugeye aerial view of a forested peatland with several large, octagonal research chambers connected by elevated boardwalks, rising amid stands of spruce and other trees. — The Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments climate change experiment in northern Minnesota, commonly known as SPRUCE, produces data that scientists use to study whether peatlands will continue locking away carbon as the climate warms.

1. They’re giant carbon vaults

Bogs consist of layers of partially decomposed plants, mostly moss, and depend on rain and snow—rather than groundwater like many other peatlands—for their water supply. Their tea-colored, acidic waters slow organic decay almost to a standstill, locking carbon in place and preventing it from being released into the atmosphere. Peatlands, including bogs, cover only about 3% of the planet, but they store a third of its land-based carbon.

Three people in chest waders take measurements and notes in a shallow, flowing stream within a bog, amid green vegetation under a clear blue sky. — Left to right: Lilly Kripp, water steward intern, Luke Cadrin, field operations manager; and Owen Ball, water steward intern, of the Barnstable Water Conservation Coalition in Massachusetts collect water samples at the Marstons Mills Bog Eco-Restoration project site. The cranberry bog system—an engineered agricultural wetland comprised of layers of sand, peat, gravel, and clay where cranberry vines grow—is home to a significant amount of the area’s groundwater, which is polluted with excess nitrogen from thousands of nearby septic systems. As cranberry cultivation becomes less profitable, work is underway to restore these bogs to their original wetland state, enabling them to slow, absorb, and clean water before it reaches downstream rivers and estuaries.

2. They are natural water filters

All that moss doesn’t just trap carbon—it also captures pollutants. As water seeps through bogs, sediments and contaminants are filtered out, supporting safer drinking water and healthier rivers and lakes by keeping surrounding and feeder waterways cleaner.

Aerial view of a massive wildfire raging across a forested ridge, with visible flames advancing through dense trees, and thick dark and pale smoke billowing upward. An airplane’s wing is visible at the right edge. — After high temperatures dried out bog-rich landscapes in Alaska, the 2019 Swan Lake fire scorched about 167,000 acres, becoming the most expensive wildfire fought in the U.S. that year, at roughly $46 million. A 2021 study found that some flames still smoldered in peat beneath the snow the following winter, even as temperatures dropped to minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit. When warm and dry conditions arrived in spring, those fires flared up.

3. They can help keep wildfires and floods in check

Bogs absorb vast quantities of rainwater and release it into the surrounding landscape gradually, making them an effective buffer against flooding during heavy storms. Healthy bogs also act as natural firebreaks—slowing flames with their heavy, waterlogged, decaying matter. Conversely, when bogs dry out because of draining or drought, they become prone to severe wildfire.

Close-up of a small, carved, dark brown wooden sculpture, featuring a long, tapered face with carved eyes, a prominent nose, and a narrow mouth. The artifact rests on a clear stand inside a transparent display case. — The small Shigir Idol is one of several wooden figures found in a peat bog east of Russia’s Ural Mountains in 1890. It is estimated to be 9,500 years old, dating to the Early Mesolithic period, and has provided scientists with insights into ancient woodworking skills and spiritual beliefs. Wooden artifacts usually rot in standard soil, but this figure was preserved because it sank into the Shigir bogs, where the waterlogged, oxygen-deprived, and highly acidic environment effectively locked the wood in time.

4. They’re living time capsules.

Bogs preserve things—sometimes eerily well. From ancient pollen to centuries-old artifacts to the macabrely fascinating “bog bodies,” these ecosystems’ waterlogged, low-oxygen soils are unusually good at conserving traces of the past, which can help scientists understand how civilizations, ecosystems, and climates have changed over time.

5. They’re more fragile than they may seem

Although they may appear timeless, bogs depend on a delicate balance of acidic water, low nutrients, and waterlogged peat moss slowly formed over millennia. Draining them for farming or development, harvesting peat, or diverting their waterways can dry them out—causing them to release their stored carbon and increasing their vulnerability to wildfires. Even subtle disturbances, such as foot traffic or nutrient changes caused by fertilizer runoff, sewage, or varying rainfall, can lead to lasting damage.

A rocky quarry cuts into a windswept upland landscape covered with grass, heather, and scattered boulders. Steep stone walls streaked with rust-colored mineral stains descend into the excavated pit, while a broad hillside rises in the background beneath a pale, overcast sky. — Nineteenth-century granite extraction, wildfires, and high foot traffic from the Slieve Donard hiking trail have degraded the bogs near the defunct Crannoge Quarry in the Mourne mountains, County Down, Northern Ireland, as illustrated by the staining of the main quarry wall caused by the bog’s acidic, tea-colored water draining from above.

Bogs may have a reputation for the mysterious—even the supernatural—but they’re just the sort of environmental multitaskers the planet needs most. They store vast amounts of carbon, filter water, buffer floods and wildfires, and offer a rare window into the past. In a warming world, they are essential, but they are also disappearing. This International Bog Day, these overlooked landscapes deserve more than curiosity—they need protection.

Alex Clayton Moya works to advance state and federal natural climate solutions for The Pew Charitable Trusts’ U.S. conservation project.