Black Lake Nature Reserve is a nature reserve

Nature reserve

A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...

 in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 managed by the Cheshire Wildlife Trust

Cheshire Wildlife Trust

The Cheshire Wildlife Trust is a wildlife trust covering the county of Cheshire and parts of the counties of Greater Manchester and Merseyside, England...

. It is located within Delamere Forest

Delamere Forest

Delamere Forest or Delamere Forest Park is a wood in the Cheshire West and Chester area of Cheshire, England, near the town of Frodsham. It includes of mixed deciduous and evergreen woodland, centred at around , making it the largest area of woodland in Cheshire...

, to the south of the Chester

Chester

Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...

 to Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

 railway (O.S. Grid Ref.: SJ537709).

Description

Nestling in the heart of Delamere Forest, Black Lake is a haven for dragonflies and damselflies, from the impressive hawkers, to delicate darters and the chaser dragonflies. The lake is a small pool and associated bog

Bog

A bog, quagmire or mire is a wetland that accumulates acidic peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses or, in Arctic climates, lichens....

 lying in a natural depression in the land. An example of early schwingmoor or floating bog development, over half of the pool is covered by a delicate sphagnum

Sphagnum

Sphagnum is a genus of between 151 and 350 species of mosses commonly called peat moss, due to its prevalence in peat bogs and mires. A distinction is made between sphagnum moss, the live moss growing on top of a peat bog on one hand, and sphagnum peat moss or sphagnum peat on the other, the...

 ‘raft’. On the outermost regions of the raft, associated bog flora

Flora

Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...

 is dominant above the carpet of sphagnum, with scattered saplings and young tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

s found throughout. These invasive trees become waterlogged as they increase in weight, when they eventually fall through the sphagnum raft and die. This natural process helps prevent the bog from becoming woodland

Woodland

Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...

.