Bear Meadows Natural Area facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Bear Meadows Natural Area |
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View of Bear Meadows from the Mid State Trail
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 Bear Meadows Natural Area
Location in Pennsylvania
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| Location | Centre County, Pennsylvania |
| Nearest city | Boalsburg |
| Area | 890 acres (360 ha) |
| Designated: | 1965 |
Bear Meadows Natural Area is a really special place in Centre County, Pennsylvania. It's located about four miles south of Boalsburg, inside the beautiful Rothrock State Forest. This area is famous for its unique bog, which is a type of wetland with very wet, spongy ground.
The bog itself covers about 320 acres (130 hectares). It has been forming for a very long time, ever since the last ice age ended about 10,000 years ago! Around the bog, you'll find an old-growth forest. This means the trees there are very old and have never been cut down. These trees are usually found much farther north, like black spruce, balsam fir, eastern hemlock, and yellow birch. Because it's so unique, Bear Meadows was named a National Natural Landmark in 1965.
The area gets its name because many black bears live and roam here. It's also well-known for the huge amounts of delicious blueberries that grow all around the bog!
What is a Bog?
A bog is a type of wetland that gets most of its water from rain, not from rivers or groundwater. This makes the water in a bog very acidic and low in nutrients. Because of these special conditions, only certain types of plants can grow there. Over thousands of years, dead plants in a bog don't fully break down. Instead, they form a thick, spongy layer called peat. This peat can be many feet deep!
Why is Bear Meadows Special?
Bear Meadows is special because it's a "northern bog" found much farther south than where these bogs usually appear. It's like a little piece of the far north right here in Pennsylvania! The cool, wet conditions in the bog and the surrounding mountains create the perfect home for plants and trees that normally grow in colder climates. This makes it a unique place to study nature and see plants you might not find anywhere else nearby.
Geology of Bear Meadows
The ground beneath the bog is made up of a type of rock called the Juniata Formation. Imagine a giant U-shaped ridge that surrounds the bog to the north, west, and south. This ridge is made from a very strong rock called the Tuscarora Formation. To the northeast of the bog, there's a small hill formed by the Bald Eagle Formation.
If you walk around the slopes near the bog, you might see many large rocks scattered around. These are called periglacial boulders. "Periglacial" means "around glaciers." These boulders were likely moved and dropped here by the powerful forces of ice and freezing water during the last ice age, even though the glaciers themselves didn't reach this exact spot.
