Bogland

From a stunning new voice in popular science, a beguiling invitation to discover the hidden power of one of Earth’s most mysterious landscapes.

Boglands have long been dismissed as wastelands—too sodden to farm, too perilous to cross, too unruly to be considered beautiful. Yet come closer and a strange truth emerges: These unconventional landscapes are fascinating paradoxes that stretch our minds, hold the history of humanity, and will shape the future of our planet. As acclaimed ecologist Merritt R. Turetsky reveals, here between the borders of land and water, bogs conjure new life forms—acid-flinging mosses, amphibian-eating plants—from an overabundance of death. The past and present commingle with uncanny intimacy as ancient lives linger in remarkable states of preservation. Even as bogs sequester nearly one third of Earth’s soil carbon, accelerating exploitation risks swiftly transforming them from climate allies to climate foes.

Gorgeously written, Bogland is an ode and a call to action: To value these places precisely for their refusal to conform, and to learn from them new ways to adapt, endure, and belong on our changing planet—before it’s too late.