BANGOR – Grasping tree roots, slogging through black muck and winding your way through hummocks used to be the only way to discover the hidden treasures of the Orono Bog.

It was a difficult journey usually reserved for naturalists and classes of students.

But with the formal opening of a nearly mile-long floating boardwalk on Saturday, anyone can traverse these rich, pristine wetlands without getting their feet wet. It was designed to provide users with maximum exposure to the beauty around them while minimizing intrusion.

Already designated as a national natural landmark, the bog is home to flora and fauna not usually found elsewhere. Carnivorous pitcher plants thrive in the peat, and the Lincoln’s sparrow and palm warblers nest almost exclusively in bogs during the spring and summer, said Judy Kellogg Markowsky, manager of the Fields Pond Audubon Center in Holden. As a naturalist and teacher, she is familiar with the bog herself and has brought students with her to explore.

It’s a path made simpler and safer. No more tree roots to worry about, hidden hazards Markowsky calls “leg breakers.”

Spearheaded by University of Maine biology professor Ronald Davis, the boardwalk is the culmination of two years of work that included raising roughly $175,000 in money and material donations needed to make the 4,200-foot boardwalk. It involved slogging through the necessary environmental procedures, with Davis noting that the application alone to environmental officials was 50 to 60 pages long.

The boardwalk developers are looking to set up a foundation to provide the funds necessary to maintain the boardwalk.

On Saturday, docents such as Nancy Andrews, an amateur botanist, led small groups along the boardwalk that starts in the Bangor forest, makes a loop around the center of the bog on land owned by the University of Maine and then returns.

It’s a loose tour with no time limit, punctuated by frequent stops as Andrews and educators Jean Rice of Orono and Regina McCombs of Lincoln stop, point and sometimes crouch to get a look at something new or a familiar friend.

Andrews has done this walk before, as the boardwalk informally opened in late June, but she still is amazed that there are always surprises.

“I think you could stand here for a million years and still see something new,” Andrews said.

On Saturday, it was something as simple as a white pine tree growing out on the heath. She had missed it on past trips. Its presence here and not in the dryer, more densely wooded area was slightly unusual, the three noted.

“They don’t like to get their feet wet,” McCombs explained.

But here in the wet, nutrient-poor ground, the tree was surviving, adapting to its environment by spreading out more horizontally and less vertically than it would elsewhere. On this flat plain, surrounded by a line of trees, everything is smaller – a miniature world where trees rarely exceed human height. Shorter and thinner than their brethren in the upland island conifer forest, these trees may be the same ages as those that are many times taller and thicker.

In the acidic peat bog, the trees get most of their nutrients from the atmosphere, through rainwater, Davis said.

Passing from the upland island – a buried ridge – with its towering trees to the wooded shrub heath and trees in miniature is like watching centuries of environmental change pass in front of your eyes. “Otherworldly” is how the small group described it Saturday.

Flora like the pitcher plant further add to this mystique. At the base of the flower sit several pitcherlike protrusions that contain water and other chemicals. Insects fall in, can’t escape and drown. Their bodies are digested by the fluid, providing nutrients to the plants.

In this difficult, acidic environment, beauty blooms.

Davis estimates that 20 varieties of orchids grow in the bog, delicate flowers such as the white lace orchid that is no larger than a fingernail. Three varieties, including the white lace, can be seen from the boardwalk. The rest are more elusive.

There is treasure to be found all around. The goldthread plant prospers in sections of the bog. Its name comes from the golden yellow fibers found along its root system. In one spot, drops of rain accumulating between the leaf shoots of one plant form a bright, yet fleeting diamond.

The richness depends not only on where you are in the bog, but when you go. In the spring, skunk cabbage shows off its bright red colors, while in the fall, Davis said, the needles of the tamarack trees turn golden yellow before falling while the huckleberry bushes turn scarlet.

There are also blueberries and cranberries to be found in the bog.

The bog serves also as a laboratory. Small pipe wells have been set up inside the bog to help determine water flow in the ecosystem, while in some places composite boards made at the University of Maine from wood and plastic have been put in place on the boardwalk to see how they weather conditions.

And although most, if not all of the trees and plants have been identified, Davis said there may be some species of insects or microorganisms that are new.

“Certainly there are things that haven’t been discovered,” Davis said.

The Orono Bog Boardwalk is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. May to August and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. from September to November.