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The holidays - traditionally the peak season for cranberries, the cheery, red wetland fruit has just past.  Prior to the inspired invention of cranberry juice and dried cranberries, they were largely overlooked outside of Thanksgiving. Today it is a popular year around fruit, now only 20% of the cranberries are used during Thanksgiving.

The North American cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) is a unique, perennial vine that shares some characteristics with its cousins, the blueberry and the ornamental rhododendron.  Snaking along the ground, the cranberry vine produces runners ranging in length from one to six feet. From these runners, vertical branches grow, and where the majority of the cranberries are found. Hardy but finicky about soil and water conditions, some vines on Cape Cod are more than 150 years old and are still bearing fruit!

The cranberry is naturally found in wetlands commonly referred to as  bogs, with acidic waters, generally in the 4.0 - 5.0 Ph range.  It bears mentioning that the Ph requirements for growing cranberries is unique, simply put, the most acidic environment an average vegetable plant can thrive in is the least acidic environment a cranberry plant will accept. Cranberry bogs also require sandy soil, fresh water and enough cold weather to force the plants into dormancy so they will produce a crop the following year.

The cranberry growth cycle is lengthy, spanning a total of 16 months starting from bud set through dormancy, flowering, fruiting, and finally, harvest.  The short harvest period stretches from late September to early November in any given year, and perfectly coincides with the Holiday season.

If there is an single image that symbolizes what many people know about cranberries - it is the acres of floating cranberries commonly seen on cranberry juice commercials, and its a popular misconception.  The fields are flooded only during the harvest, the bogs are mechanically thrashed, gently separating the berries from the stems and allowing the the berries to float to the surface for gathering and storage.

In storage, the cranberries are hardy fruits, resistant to rot after being picked and will remain edible for months if kept cool.  For this attribute alone, the berry was highly regarded by Native Americans and settlers, it was called a "bog berry" or ibimi, "bitter berry" by Native Americans, and is mentioned throughout early American  writings.

Due to the cranberries  popularity, production increased rapidly during the 1980s and 1990's; coinciding with a growing awareness of the importance of wetlands, and newly enacted laws to protect them.  In the next section, I'll review how cranberry farming has affected wetlands, and how the industry and laws has evolved during the past 50 years.

 

Check out this great  youtube video about cranberries in the meantime.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZPXQ7nw_9Y

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Reminiscent of 1970's environmental violations in its scope and egregious behavior, the  Kentucky based Frasure Creek Mining company was discovered to have submitted falsified water quality data thousands of times in 2008 and 2009, by repeatedly resubmitting old, passing reports.  The mining company was  subsequently sued by the Pace Law School Environmental Clinic representing several Kentucky based environmental organizations.   Frasure also did an encore performance from 2011 through March 2013, under the less than watchful eyes of Kentucky’s Energy and Environment Cabinet.  The Cabinet has long been known to be beholden to mining companies for generations, but the audacity of both the Frasure Creek Mining company for submitting falsified data and the Cabinet for jumping to Frasure's defense is breathtaking.

It speaks volumes about the Cabinet if it takes some city slickers- New York City law students in particular, to carry their water, so to speak, and demand the state enforce their own clean water regulations. Twice.

Not only did the Cabinet fail to uncover violations but they also shielded the Frasure Mine from prosecution, by filing its own suit on December 3,2010, and downplaying over 20,000 violations as "transcription errors". On the very same day the Cabinet filed the suit, they filed a consent judgement absolving Frasure creek for all violations, finding no wrongdoing and turning a blind eye to the falsified data in return for a $310,000 slap on the wrist. A sweetheart deal if there ever was one, fines up to $38 million could have been levied due to the number of violations under the Clean Water Act. The Cabinet attempts  to deflect criticism of their soft-pedalling of penalties and fealty to the coal companies by blaming all errors and omissions on the catch-all  "lack of manpower" excuse.
The KY Cabinet has additional enforcement problems in regards to mining; a federal grand jury just indicted  state Rep. Keith Hall on bribery charges, alleging he paid a state inspector, Kelly Shortridge, more than $46,000 to ignore environmental violations at his Pike County coal mines.
However, all is not lost, on November 24, 2014 , Franklin Circuit Court, Judge Phillip J. Shepherd tossed out the $310,000 agreement and will allow the Pace Law Clinic to participate in the hearing.  What this will mean with regards to penalties and enforcement is unclear, since the Frasure Creek Mine filed for bankruptcy in February 2013, and all of its equipment was sold.
The difficulties encountered in enforcing safety and environmental regulations of similar mines in West Virginia was published in the powerful and prescient book "Coal River" by Michael Shnayerson in 2008. Similar to the mines in Kentucky, gross violations have been found time and time again, without any consequences. It predicted the tragedy at Upper Big Branch Mine, if only by detailing the pattern of misconduct and evasiveness of the company while attempting to circumvent both mine safety and environmental regulations. Blankenship, the former CEO  was finally indited by a federal grand jury on November 13, 2014, for conspiracy to violate mandatory federal mine safety and health standards.

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"Wetlands: an Overview of Issues" is a 30 page, nonpartisan summary of the science, law and policy encompassing all of the issues relating to wetlands and their preservation, most recently published in December 2013. (Update: The 2014 Version was released on Nov 17, 2014 - and is available for $19.95 here through Penny Hill Press)
The paper was sponsored by the Congressional Research Service - the designated think tank for Congress, (http://www.loc.gov/crsinfo/) which provides research and legal analysis allowing Congress to make informed decisions.

Longer than an article, and shorter than a book, its a great primer on the history and current status of laws, policies and societal pressures that affect wetlands and efforts to protect them. Well worth a read and bookmarking.
Previous versions, dating from 2010 are available here, and I have only been able to locate the 2013 version here.

Wetlands in the News

26 October 2026