Place

Tannersville Cranberry Bog

Also known as: Tannersville Bog, Cranberry Swamp

A 1,000-acre boreal peatland complex in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, on the Pocono Plateau, managed by The Nature Conservancy as a preserve. The site is the southernmost low-altitude boreal bog in the eastern United States — a glacial-relict ecosystem more typical of Maine or Quebec. Designated a National Natural Landmark in 1974. The 700-foot boardwalk into the bog provides controlled public access. The bog supports tamarack, black spruce, Atlantic white cedar, leatherleaf, sundew, pitcher plant, and cranberry — a flora that should not exist this far south.

What it is

Tannersville Cranberry Bog is the canonical reference site for the Pocono Plateau‘s relict-boreal ecology. The bog is roughly 1,000 acres in total; the publicly accessible portion is a 700-foot boardwalk that ends at a viewing platform out over the open peat mat.

The peatland complex includes:

Sphagnum-dominated open mat — leatherleaf, bog laurel, cranberry, pitcher plant, sundew (round-leaved and spatulate-leaved), bog rosemary
Boreal-tree fringe — tamarack, black spruce (at its absolute southern range edge in the eastern U.S.), Atlantic white cedar
Sphagnum hummocks and pools — supporting four-toed salamander, ringed boghaunter dragonfly (state-threatened in PA)
Surrounding hemlock-hardwood forest — buffering the bog hydrology

The peat depth in the central mat exceeds 30 feet — over 10,000 years of accumulation since the last glaciation.

Why this matters

Tannersville is climate-vulnerable in a way that’s unusually concrete: it persists because the kettle holds cold air, the surrounding hemlock holds cold water, and the local hydrology stays acidic and oligotrophic. Each of those conditions is being eroded — by warming, HWA-driven hemlock loss, and runoff from surrounding development. TNC’s stewardship aims to keep all three intact.

Why it’s listed

Globally rare ecosystem under active stewardship by a high-credibility national institution (TNC, U.S.). The bog is the bioregion’s strongest single demonstration of why the platform should fund conservation, not just regenerative production.

Public access

The boardwalk is accessed through guided tours operated by the Pocono Heritage Land Trust and Monroe County Environmental Education Center. The mat itself is not safe to walk on without escort and would be damaged by foot traffic.

Sources

The Nature Conservancy preserve documentation
National Natural Landmark Program file (1974 designation)
PA Natural Heritage Program, peatland surveys

What links here, and how

Inbound connections from across the wiki, grouped by lens and by relationship. These appear automatically — every entity page declares what it links to, and that data populates here on the targets.

Scientific

contained by

Black Spruce Tannersville hosts one of the southernmost-known eastern populations
Cranberry the bog is named for the historical cranberry harvest from this site
Purple Pitcher Plant one of the densest mid-Atlantic populations
Tamarack Tannersville's tamarack stand is the bioregion's strongest

instance of

Glacial Kettle Bog the canonical Pocono example — National Natural Landmark, TNC-managed

contains

Poconos National Natural Landmark; southernmost low-altitude boreal bog in the eastern U.S., a glacial relict on the plateau

6 inbound links · 5 outbound