Hayden Bog -- Destroyed

The following photos, taken on July 22, 2007 by Doug Watts and Roger Wheeler, depict the destruction of Hayden Bog at Long Point on Sebago Lake in Standish, Maine due to artificially maintained water levels at Sebago Lake.















These photographs depict a southern Maine springfed peat bog being destroyed in July, 2007. Normally, at this time of year, most of the water you seen in the pictures would not be present. Instead of wide pools of water, the bog would feature a narrow, deep brook with noticeable current, joined at spots by smaller brooklets. Because Hayden Bog is just slightly above the elevation of Sebago Lake, which it flows into, the artificially high water levels of Sebago now act as a "dam" at the mouth of Hayden Bog and prevent the bog from reaching its normal (low) summer water level. The result is the conversion of the bog's wetted area into enormous masses of filamentous algae which prevents virtually anything from living in the water, including normal, native aquatic plants and aquatic insects. The bottom of the bog is carpeted with thick plumes of pink, green and grey filamentous algae.