Human disturbance

Large scale peat harvesting started in 1942 in Burns Bog. Earlier attempts occurred in the 30's but the Bog's conditions did not allow the operation to be profitable. In 1942, an American company bought large amount of fuel peat from Western Peat Company, which extracted peat on the east side of the Bog. Western Peat transported peat away from the site using railways that they built on the Bog. The Bog was originally too wet to support heavy machinery and railways. To solve the problem, the company put a system of intersecting ditches. This site was mined with several methods and was actively producing peat until the 1980's. Now, the railways had been demolished but the grid patterns of intersecting ditches can still be seen.

Also in the 1940's, another company mined the west side of Burns Bog. This company uses a method that did not require putting in ditches. The first picture on the right is a "hoverbarge" used by the company. Instead, they dug small depressions which now appear as lakes or ephemeral water bodies. These water bodies gave Burns bog a distinctive appearance on aerial photographs.

This is a pipe used in peat harvesting in Burns Bog, presumably used to pump slurry peat from the site to a processing plant. However, we (the authors) are not sure where this picture was taken.