Source: WUNC, 6/9/22

Greg Rubino drives his elongated spade, called a sharpshooter, into the decaying organic matter of the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. He’s a wetland scientist with the North Carolina Division of Water Resources, and once he’s dug about a foot underground, past a mat of roots, he reaches into a bed of “real soil” and grabs a sample, crumbling it between his fingers. Partially decomposed organic matter makes up most of the soil in a pocosin — the acidic soil keeps vegetation from fully decomposing, forming peat.

For more of this story, click here.