Healthy pocosin wetlands at Pocosin Lakes Refuge

Healthy pocosin wetlands at Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina. A pocosin is a wetland bog with sandy peat soil and woody shrubs or trees. Beneath forests of pond pines, white cedars and a dense shrub understory, the chocolate-colored peat soils are layered with thousands of years of slowly decaying organic material. The most precious ingredient in these pocosins, or peatlands, is the carbon-rich peat soil.