Cedar Bog Nature Preserve
A mile-long boardwalk enters Ohio’s richest calcareous fen complex, where cold mineral groundwater supports orchids, sedges, northern white cedar, prairie species, spotted turtles, and remarkable seasonal change.
Artwork inspired by Edna Boies Hopkins
The famous name is hydrologically wrong. Bogs receive most water from precipitation and accumulate acidic peat; Cedar Bog is a fen continuously flushed by mineral-rich groundwater emerging from glacial deposits. That chemistry allows prairie, boreal, wetland, and woodland species to overlap, helping the preserve support an extraordinary share of Ohio’s rare plants.
Walk slowly and keep every foot on the boardwalk. Skunk cabbage can warm through late-winter ice, marsh marigolds color spring, showy lady’s-slippers peak around May, and sedges and asters carry the season later. Wind closures protect visitors from ash-damaged trees, deer firearm season can close access, and storm damage currently limits the route to the South Loop—check the live notice before traveling.
- True ecosystem
- Calcareous fen
- Boardwalk
- About one mile
- Rare diversity
- Among Ohio’s highest
Quick guide
- Watch the water
- Clear groundwater flow is the key distinction from a bog.
- Read plant overlap
- Prairie, boreal, and wetland species meet because of chemistry and temperature.
How to recognize a fen in motion
- Watch the water
- Clear groundwater flow is the key distinction from a bog.
- Read plant overlap
- Prairie, boreal, and wetland species meet because of chemistry and temperature.
- Stay on boardwalk
- Rare roots and saturated soils cannot tolerate shortcuts.
- Return by season
- Each month changes flowers, insects, birds, and water visibility.
Good to know
Storm damage currently leaves only the South Loop open. The boardwalk closes in high winds and during deer firearms season; pets are not permitted on boardwalk or prairie trails.
Notice these
- Showy lady’s-slipper habitat
- Northern white cedar fen
- Groundwater-fed boardwalk