At Cedar Bog Nature Preserve in early spring, skunk cabbage is among the first signs of life, pushing up through cold, saturated ground—sometimes melting the surrounding ice through thermogenesis. It’s often tied to what we loosely call “bogs,” though this landscape is a fen, shaped by slow-moving groundwater rather than standing rainwater. The name “bog” endures from an earlier, more general use of the word for any wet, difficult ground and the absence of “fen” in everyday language at the time. Its return each spring quietly marks the steady movement beneath the surface, where water keeps the ground stable even at winter’s edge.