This anecdote is emblematic of how peatlands such as bogs and fens, and to a lesser extent swamps and marshes, have suffered a bad rap over the centuries. They were often viewed as the haunts of will-o’-the-wisps, jack-o’-lanterns and moss people, as well as the source of diseases such as cholera and swamp fever. Many of them were drained for those reasons. Peat — from places such as Alfred Bog outside Ottawa, Burns Bog near Vancouver and Holland Marsh near Toronto — was mined to produce cheap fuel to heat homes, manufacture firebombs and make way for agriculture. Peat continues to be harvested throughout the country to produce soil conditioners. Seismic exploration conducted for Alberta’s oil and gas industry has disturbed at least 1,900 square kilometres of peatland and increased methane emissions by 4,400 to 5,100 tonnes per year.

Peat is partially decayed vegetation that has piled up over centuries in water-logged, oxygen-starved conditions. Peatlands, often referred to as muskeg in Canada, account for 90 per cent of Canada’s wetlands and cover about 113.6 million hectares. While peatlands make up just three to four per cent of the Earth’s landscape, they pack a big punch, especially in Canada, which is home to a quarter of the world’s peatlands. The Hudson Bay and James Bay lowlands store five times more carbon than the equivalent area in the Amazon rainforest. A healthy peatland can stop or slow a wildfire. And peatlands can mitigate flooding because mosses can hold up to 25 per cent of their weight in moisture. 

The degradation of peat continues as permafrost thaws and wildfires burn bigger and more often. And yet there is a glimmer of hope in that Indigenous Peoples and scientists are working to safeguard, restore and reframe Canada’s expansive peatlands as a landscape worth saving.