There has been considerable success so far in a bog restoration project that aims to revive 1,200 hectares of western blanket bog, writes Dick Ahlstrom
New boglands are being created from old in an innovative restoration project being run by Coillte. The €4.2-million project seeks to bring 14 bogland sites back to life and renew them as places for bog plants and wildlife
Work on Coillte's Life-Nature Project got under way in 2002, says project ecologist and consultant to Coillte, Dr John Conaghan. "This is all very experimental. It is the first time this has been done here," he says.
Peatlands are rich and diverse wetlands that represent a valuable environmental resource. Our bogs are among the richest in Europe, and many of our rare and threatened species are associated with bogs including merlin, otter, red grouse, dragonfly and mosses and lichens.
Bogs have long represented an economic resource as well and have supplied energy needs here for generations. This in turn has depleted many raised and blanket bogs, changed utterly because of essential drainage that deprived the bog plant species of essential water, and the stripping away of the growing bog cover.
Coillte's habitat restoration project is co-funded with support from the EU's Life-Nature initiative, an effort to conserve Europe's flora and fauna. It involves about 1,200 hectares of blanket bog mainly along the western seaboard, explains Conaghan.
In part, Coillte's involvement is hard-nosed business, he suggests. "Coillte has to adhere to environmental principles to get their timber products sold abroad." This includes how it maintains and harvests its forests and how it supports the environment and conservation efforts.
The company also found, however, that it had lots of land on its books that was not particularly suited to the growing of trees and developing forestry, its main role. "Coillte has a lot of land in its estate which is located in Special Areas of Conservation (SACs). Most of the SACs are very wet and not very good for tree growth," Conaghan explains.
It decided to pursue support from the EU to initiate a restoration scheme for suitable blanket boglands as part of its own Nature Conservation Programme. It joined with the National Parks and Wildlife service to select suitable sites for restoration and the work began.
The first thing on the agenda was usually tree felling, says Conaghan. Standing Coillte stock was removed but also any birch and other self-seeded trees that would work against bog restoration. "Birch trees are not good for a bog even though they look nice," says Conaghan. "They tend to make the bog dry out. In some sites the trees have completely killed off the bog species."
Some of the 14 sites had near mature, 25- to 30-year-old commercial stands of mainly conifers. These were sold but immature stands of say 10 years or less were cut down and left on site.
Next, drains were blocked to allow water to build up once again and return the character of a wetland, says Conaghan. These conditions are ideal for the three main plant species in an Irish blanket bog, purple moor grass, black bog rush and cross-leaved heath. The wettest areas near drains and springs are also quickly colonised by sphagnum moss.
"The moss acts like a big sponge and holds onto the water. It also contributes to the low ph of the water," he explains. Bogs are quite acidic with a typical ph of four, but this can dip to as low as 3.5. On the ph scale seven is neutral, neither acid nor basic.
Little more has to be done to encourage the bog plants to reassert themselves, he says. "Over the course of time the seed bank will grow and seed will be blown in by the wind. The theory is if you raise the water level the bog will come back."
The theory seems to hold water. The five demonstration sites including one visited last month by the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Joe Walsh, at Eskeragh, Co Mayo, are all showing signs of rapid progress after only two years.
Measuring recovery is not straightforward however. "It depends on what you define as intact bog vegetation," Conaghan says. "In some sites there will be a 100 per cent cover of bog species within five years. In areas were there were large trees it will be a much longer time scale, maybe 10 to 20 years."
The work relates only to the western blanket bogs owned by Coillte, and not the huge raised midland bogs run by Bord na Móna. The effort will see the return of a threatened habitat that will provide a haven for native wildlife.