It was a road-side bog in Tyler County. 'Texas
trumpets' (Sarracenia alata), 'pink sundews' (Drosera capillaris),
Texas butterworts (Pinguicula pumila) and long-fiber
sphagnum (sphagnum macrophyllum) lived side-by-side with orchids and ferns.
The passing motorists never suspected the carnage and wholesale slaughter of millions of greedy insects that was going on just a few feet away. Noone ever saw the futile struggling to get legs and wings unstuck from the gluey dew of the sundew leaves, or to climb 1/10" up the inside of pitchers only to slide back down toward the soup of digestive enzymes, too drugged and paralyzed from the nectar...
That was the world that had to come to an end. The road had to be expanded. TXDOT condemned the bog, but not before their teams of environmental scientists notified State educational institutions and other State agencies of the existence of the bog plants. The Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens, TX, which had been consulting with CPT to build bog gardens showcasing native carnivorous plants, obtained permission from the TXDOT to collect the dormant plants from the condemned bog.
TFFC Director Allen Forsage, TFFC Wetlands creator Glen Raborn, and yours truly, got our rubber boots,
shovels, hundreds of plastic pots, and camera,
and set off to SE Texas to rescue native bog plants from certain, merciless death
under the steel teeth of bulldozers... After several hours of driving
through gorgeous pine forests and road-side wetlands, and sightings of grazing deer and flocks of pelicans (!),
we found the bog.
This bog is about 100' long and about 30' wide, the soil being
white sand sitting 
on top of clay. Long-leaf pines, wild azaleas, magnolias, and wax-myrtles hide it from the road.
At one end there is a depression which collects water. Hundreds of Texas trumpets grow 1/3 submerged in it, in a mixture of mostly sand and clay,
while at the other end they grow in constantly wet sand, next to colonies of pink sundews.
It took several hours to collect 
hundreds of barely dormant S. alata, D. capillaris colonies, sphagnum, and other bog plants, and carry them to the pickups.
Covered in sweat and mud and with the vehicles full, we returned
to the TFFC in Athens. The displaced plants were stored for later planting at the TFFC bog gardens,
their future no longer uncertain, and despair a fading memory...
After 10 hours of driving and many hours of back-breaking manual labor, the day was over.
Related Stories:
Rescued Pitcher plants and Sundews get new home
Bog gardens part of wetlands exhibit
TFFC consults with CPT to build bog gardens
Site No. 2, Tyler Co.
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