The company Bord na Mona is attempting to rehabilitate 33,000 hectares of Irish midlands bog in one of the largest environmental projects being undertaken in Europe. The company spent its first 80 years draining the bogs to extract peat. It will spend the next two decades rewetting them in an attempt to reverse the process.
About 75 per cent of the raised bogs here have been destroyed by peat-cutting, afforestation and reclamation for agriculture. They once covered about 310,000 hectares of the midlands. Most of the remaining 46,000 hectares is dead or inactive, meaning it can’t support life.
It will involve more than just reblocking drains and allowing water previously drained away to stay on the site. It means managing the water so that it stays at a level just below the vegetation line which is essential for the original biodiversity to re-establish.
The bog developed over 10,000 years from shallow lakes left by retreating glaciers. The build-up of undecayed vegetation slowly thickens into a peat. Restoring what is left of these habitats has a new imperative driven by the climate crisis.
Farmers with lands close to the bogs that are being rewet are worried the process will damage, or even destroy, their lands and livelihoods.
“Bord na Móna’s intention is that, where any such additional flooding risks are identified, the proposed rehabilitation measures will be adjusted to minimise any such additional risks and such adjusted measures are identified in the hydrological assessment,” as stated in the original statement of intent.
Farmers are also worried that Bord na Mona may at some point in the future start selling parcels of peatland as valuable carbon sinks to companies wanting to offset their emissions footprint.