Sifton Bog
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The Sifton Bog is a wetland jointly administered by the city of London, Ontario and the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority. It is located west of Hyde Park Road and south of Oxford Street inside the city limits of London. It is a Class 2 provincially significant wetland.[1] Prior to 1967 the wetland was called "Byron Bog", having been at that time within the boundaries of the village of Byron, but it was renamed following the donation of the land by the "Sifton Construction Company".
The Sifton Bog is the most southerly acidic bog in Canada. It contains a number of rare species including four types of carnivorous plants.[2]
The depression which houses the bog was created, like many local geologic features, by the effects of glaciation.[3] A depression in the Ingersoll Glacial Moraine was left by retreating glaciers. The result was a pocket with no drainage which developed into the Sifton Bog.[4] The 0.2 hectare pond at the centre of the bog, Redmond's Pond, is the remant of what would have originally been a larger 23 hectare water body, which has gradually filled with peat over the last 10000 years to form Sifton Bog.
The bog was previously used as a commercial source of sphagnum moss, an alternative to cotton gauze. It was mined during the First World War to support the war effort and the needs of local hospitals. The Alder Buckthorn, a plant native to the bog, was harvested and used during the Second World War to produce gunpowder.[5]