The mysterious tales of Whispering Firs Bog are mostly fictional, I suppose, but it’s a fact that our precious bog is an unusual place indeed.

It developed over 7,000 years in a natural depression that never connected to the surrounding streams. Rainwater pooled in that basin, turning it acidic and inhospitable to most plants. Yet in those conditions, sphagnum moss took hold — and with it, unusual companions also found a home, such as the carnivorous sundew, red-legged frogs, bog laurel and Labrador tea.

Such wetland micro-ecosystems are increasingly rare. Whispering Firs is one of only a few peat bogs (sphagnum-dominated wetlands) in lowland Puget Sound. But here on Vashon-Maury Island — thanks to the foresight of Emma Amiad and the stewardship of the Land Trust — it is preserved. (The

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