Kampoosa Stewardship Committee

Bog Location

The Kampoosa Bog ACEC Drainage Basin is approximately 1,350 acres in size and is located in the towns of Lee (225 acres) and Stockbridge (1,125 acres) in southern Berkshire County. The drainage basin is generally bordered to the north by a drainage divide south of Rattlesnake Mountain and Devon Road; to the east by West Road; to the south by Stockbridge and Yale Hill Roads and a drainage divide across the Congregation of Marians' Eden Hill property; and to the west by Prospect Hill Road. A small stream known as Marsh Brook flows into the wetland and pond from the north, and is named Kampoosa Brook as it continues southerly toward the Housatonic River. Another unnamed stream flows into Kampoosa Brook from the northeast. Woodlands and open fields, streams, rolling hills, private residences, and the extensive surface water and wetland system of Kampoosa characterize the drainage basin. The area is a contained basin or bowl with tributary streams, springs, and groundwater flowing down into the fen and Kampoosa Brook, and thence downstream to the Housatonic River.

The Bog sits in a basin that is partly defined by bedrock. At the north edge of the wetland complex small cliffs and bedrock outcrops poke through thin glacial soils right to the water's edge. To the south of the Bog a ridge of glacial sediments-- probably gravel and sands deposited by rushing waters near the great ice masses as they melted-- forms Eden Hill. This hill abuts the southern edge of the wetland complex. Cupped between the bedrock ledges and the softer forms of the glacial sediments is a bowl, the bottom of which in places lies 50 feet below the surface of the wetland, and its central pond. This bowl is Kampoosa Bog.

Soils

Kampoosa, a Stockbridge Native American name meaning "dangerous place," refers to the treacherous quaking mat of sedges surrounding the central pond. That part of the wetland area of the drainage basin referred to as Kampoosa Bog is about 160 acres in size. Soils in the wetland are peat and muck. Peat is partially decomposed plant remains that have been preserved by the anaerobic conditions of the wetlands. Muck is a dark colored well-decomposed organic soil.

Bog vs. Fen

Although popularly known as Kampoosa Bog, this area is not a bog, but a fen. The fen is contained in a small basin (the Kampoosa drainage basin), with an inflow of calcareous cold groundwater. One of the most unusual of the several calcareous fens to be found in Berkshire County, virtually undisturbed or altered, it lies between the encroaching developments of the human environment. To accommodate both local usage and scientific precision, the name Kampoosa Bog shall be used when referring generally to the area. When discussing particular resources of the area, however, the word 'calcareous fen' will be used in the interest of accuracy (not all fens are calcareous).

Kampoosa Bog represents the largest, most diverse and pristine lake basin calcareous fen in Massachusetts. This wetland is rare in the Commonwealth, being restricted to areas such as the Housatonic Valley where calcium-rich bedrock is abundant. Kampoosa Bog, unlike many other fens in the Berkshires, has not been disturbed by ditching and draining, dam construction, and water quality degradation, and therefore still supports abundant rare and distinctive plant life. It is because of this pristine state that so many unusual species have survived.

Like a bog, a fen has a floating mat of vegetation, but while a bog would have a very acidic environment with little inflow of water and a mat of sphagnum moss, the calcareous fen has an inflow of mineral-rich alkaline water, a sedge mat with sphagnum moss underlying the mat and calcium loving plants. At the center of the fen is a small pond, a remnant of the lake that once filled this basin. Surrounding the pond is a vast flat expanse of grass-like sedges bordered by a zone of shrubs and then swampy woods. Forest clothes the slopes of the basin.

Rare Species

The 1,400 acre Kampoosa Bog drainage basin harbors 23 rare plant species, 2 rare animal species and many other unusual ones-- with most of these rarities found in the wetland portions of the drainage basin. This is one of the Commonwealth's most significant rare species habitats and provides habitat for several rare species that are found at very few other sites in Massachusetts.

According to the Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program (MNHESP), "preserving the integrity of this calcareous fen is critical to maintaining one of the premier rare species sites in Massachusetts." The Nature Conservancy states that Kampoosa requires "the highest priority for protection."

Archaeology

The ACEC contains a record of land-use history spanning more than 5000 years. Recent archaeological investigations at archaeological sites dating to the Late Archaic (ca. 3000-5000 years ago) and Woodland (3000-4000 years ago) periods revealed evidence of habitation areas, work areas where food and hides were processed, and workshops where many stone tools were made. Sediment cores taken from the Bog correlate periods of frequent understory burning with the most intensive occupations of the sites, indicating human management of the forest environment going back more than 3000 years. These significant findings are only part of the potential information contained in the historic and archaeological resources of the ACEC.

CRITICAL ATTRIBUTES OF THE BOG

In the spring of 1996 a science subcommittee of the Kampoosa Stewardship Committee identified the five critical attributes or characteristics of the Kampoosa Bog ecosystem:

1. rare natural communities
2. rare species
3. large contiguous landscape mosaic
4. hydrologic system
5. historic and archaeological resources

In assembling basic ecological information for the site, the committee determined and summarized the major biological and ecological processes operating within Kampoosa Bog.