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Alfred Bog set to become provincial park

Alfred Bog set to become provincial park

A rare type of bog 75 kilometres east of downtown Ottawa is set to become a new provincial park.

The Alfred Bog, which is south of the community of Alfred, is home to turtles, the odd moose and carnivorous plants such as the pitcher plant and sundew.

It's the biggest of the three "domed peat" bogs in southern Ontario, and about twice the size of Mer Bleue Bog in east Ottawa.

"It's a very unique and rare feature in this area," said Michelle Cavanagh of the South Nation Conservation Area, which maintains an approximately 300-metre boardwalk in the bog and owns about 81 hectares of it.

"[It's] a very different landscape than what you're used to seeing. It's very open, not a lot of trees, and what trees are there are very short."

Public consultations in the works

These types of bogs, characterized by raised mounds of peat covering former lakes or dips in the landscape, are also found in places such as Ireland and New Zealand.

Cavanagh said lots of people in Ottawa don't know about the Alfred Bog because of its distance from the city, a relative lack of signage and the fact it doesn't have as many trails as Mer Bleue.

A spokesperson for the province's Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry said they're planning on holding public consultations on changing the park's status later this year.

They didn't say when it could officially become a provincial park.