I am anti bullshit – I think the green movement would go a lot further if it stopped mumbling bullshit stories into its yoghurt.
Well that’s just rude – there is a lot of science behind why peat bogs are beneficial. Take time to read through things published by:
IUCN Peatland Programme
Historically they have been exploited:
Fuel – there are relict peat cutting sites throughout the UK. There will probably always be some properties where peat cutting is the only option. In my opinion these will be fractions of fractions of a percent to the total number of households and falling.
Compost – mainly a lowland bog problem. There is a real push to reduce the peat content of compost. I think the industry was actually left to self regulate on this one – consequently reductions have been pitiful.
Agriculture – draining and improving, there was a big push on this post war. Essentially plowing a single drainage ditch through the bog surface – known as a Grip – there were large grants available to do this. The separation of the the grip was based on the grant payment.
Forestry – monoculture planting over large areas of bog in the upland.
Wildfire has been a big cause of damage – once you loose the surface vegetation, which is hard to establish without some fairly invasive work, then the bog erodes at rates upto a couple of cm a year. Washing away in the rain, desiccating and blowing away in dry weather.
Benefits other than biodiversity:
Carbon capture – once you have got to the point where sphagnum is growing the bog will start to build. The rate of growth is not quick enough to make peat harvesting sustainable.
Water quality – this is really a degraded bog issue. Water from peat bogs is the colour of tea, water companies then spend of a lot of money treating it to the point where people can make tea with it. It’s really about improving the quality of the raw material.
Flood risk – here it’s really about slowing the flow and making catchments less flashy. Trying to get the flood profile away from rapid rise and fall to a slower steady rise and fall.
Whats being done:
Strangely enough rather than weaving Yogurt there are people throughout the UK focused on different areas of peatland research and restoration. The project most familiar to mountain bikers is Moors for the Future.
Depending on what the actual cause of damage was the projects tend to be looking at:
Grip blocking / profiling
Removing Trees
Gully blocking / profiling – gullies are taken as the channels formed though natural processes
Stabilising bare peat
Increasing biodiversity
Reducing trampling damage
Sphagnum inoculation – this is the big that actually gets the bog building processes functioning. At lot of the earlier other treatments are really about getting you to this point.
In industry:
Peat free alternatives for composts – for example bracken and sheeps wool mixes
What can we do:
Buy peat free
Don’t start burning peat and try to find alternatives if you are one of the very rare people who have to
Ride responsibly – some of that loam might not be, plumes of dirt = erosion. Pick routes according to the ground conditions.
