A mere 15 minutes from our front porch, in Ottawa’s greenbelt parklands, is this treasure: Mer Bleue, a spaghnum bog and wildlife sanctuary named for a blue mist that rises mysteriously under just the right weather conditions. This morning we decided to walk the Mer Bleue Boardwalk Trail. The crunch of spring snow under our feet surely scared whatever wildlife we may have otherwise seen this frosty morning, and we were left to read, uninterrupted, the numerous interpretation signs that mark the 1.2 km path. This is how I came to know not only about the blue mist for which the bog is named, but that bogs are common features uch further north in the Boreal forests of northern Canada, and that Mer Bleue’s current topography was created some 9,500 years ago thanks to the retreating Laurentide Ice Sheet and Champlain Sea. Deposits of sphagnum peat moss form a dense mat up to 6 m deep in some areas, which keeps the water uniquely oxygen-poor, excessively cold, and highly acidic. According to one sign, the water here is 1000 times more acidic than milk.

Now, why am I going to remember that for a long time to come?

Interpretation is an informal educational method used widely in museums, parks and zoos to convey the meaning and value of a place. It is very effective in a short period of time. Why? Because interpretation offers high-quality communication at the precise moment when a visitor to the museum or park is awed by their surroundings, the very definition of a teachable moment.

Mer Bleue is part of Ottawa’s greenbelt system of parklands managed by the National Capital Commission (NCC), a Crown Agency of the Canadian government. It has also been designated as a Wetland of International Significance under the Ramsar Convention since October 1995. Yet, it wasn’t always an internationally significant conservation area. During World War II, the Royal Canadian Air Force used this area for bombing practice. Today it is threatened by urban sprawl, the unchecked activities of beavers and those of us who don’t recognizeits significance. The NCC’s challenge is to deliver fascinating accounts of the ecology and the geology of the bog, and compelling stories of the French settlers that described the blue mist, and to reveal to those of us perhaps more interested in a Sunday morning walk than ecological advocacy why Mer Bleue should be interpreted at all. Why does it matter? In her book, Capital Rambles: Exploring National Capital Region, Katherine Fletcher answers that the moss mats fullfill a significant ecological niche:

…the wetland serve as “lungs” of the earth, much in the same way as mangrove trees do in the tropics. Mer Bleue bog is critical to the health of its surrounding landscape because it filters contaminants from the watershed region. It also services as natural reservoir by replenishing the water table. More than 75 percent of Ontario’s wetlands have been drained, so it is particularly important that the NCC remains committed to maintaining Mer Bleue as an internationally significant conservation area (p. 75).

NCC’s interpretive walk is not meant merely to entertain or disseminate facts about bogs, although it does do that. It is meant to create empathy and meaning for this special place. Remnants of the last ice age. More acidic than milk. Unique flora and fauna. On this very spot a mere 15 minutes from our front porch. Meaningful places matter to us; we are far more likely to serve as environmental stewards. The real success of the interpretive walk is that it creates the kind of empathy that ensures Mer Bleue may will survive many more thousands of years.

More

• La Mer Bleue: Neighbouring Carlsbad Springs offers this informative, slightly academic description of Mer Bleue bog, quite unlike the typical tourist brochures.
• A Virtual Tour of the National Capital Region: Interesting satellite imagery of the Mer Bleue bog from Satellite Impressions, which shows the different vegetation communities quite clearly.
• Capital Rambles: Exploring National Capital Region: Katherine Fletcher’s insider’s guide to Canada’s national capital region — West Quebec (the Outaouais) and Eastern Ontario region that surround Ottawa. If you are visiting us, this book will guide you along 12 “rambles” through hills, lakes, watersheds and heritage villages, including, of course, Mer Bleu.

An Interpretive Walk Through Mer Bleu originally appeared on Portable Learner on March 26th, 2006