Peat captures carbon in Snowdonia
Back in 2003, Snowdonia National Park embarked on a wide-ranging project to conserve and enhance 4,293 hectares of land in the park with the aim of:
- promoting biodiversity
- restoring landscapes to their natural state
- preserving the cultural heritage of the region
One aspect of the £5.5m Rhaglen Tir Eryri scheme involved restoring 10 hectares of peat bogs to their natural 'boggy' state.
This simple-sounding process has far-reaching consequences.
Restoring the upland 'blanket bog' by ridding it of connifers has helped encourage biodiversity and offset the effects of climate change by re-establishing the peat as an effective carbon store.
Restoration of Trawscoed blanket bog
Snowdonia's blanket peat bogs account for 30 per cent of Wales' total, so work on restoring a section of these has a major impact on the country's ability to capture and store carbon in the way nature intended.
It also has an impact on flood run-off - peat bogs can soak up heavy rains which otherwise flood local rivers.
- A 10ha area in the east of Snowdonia National Park called Trawscoed, near Bala, was identified for restoration work.
- It was one of 4,923ha of so-called 'Natura2000' sites of special scientific interest and had been covered with connifer plantations for many years.
- In March 2006 work started on removing the spruce trees that had long dried out the 'blanket bog' there - a type of upland bog area - and stifled biodiversity with its light-blocking tree cover.
- The project was completed by January 2007 has resulted in the 're-wetting' of the blanket bog. In other words, the bog is once more boggy, rather than bone dry as it had been when sheltered by a forest of connifers.
- This has allowed bog mosses to thrive once more, keeping the peat below them wet and so helping it to be an effective 'carbon store' once more, as well as helping to contain river run-off contributes to flooding problems for low-lying areas of the park.
How did they do it?
Three gangs of 10 contractors worked on the privately-owned land from Mar 2006 to January 2007 (in the winter months only) to cut the connifers.
This had to be done by hand because of difficult access to the site, and to avoid damaging the sensitive habitats with heavy forestry machinery.
Contractors then laid the felled spruce cuttings in 'grips' - channels that had previously been cut in the peat bog to drain it for agricultural use.
By laying brash (foliage) in the grips, the dried-out soil was given a chance to become 're-wetted', as water collected and allowed traditional bog mosses to redevelop.
What are the results so far?
It will take many more years to restore the land fully, but already heather (Calluna vulgaris), hare's tail cotton grass (Eriophorum vaginatum) and Sphagnum mosses (such as Sphagnum capillifolium) have been re-established on the site.
