By Claire Corrigan
Streete Parish Park was the venue for a lively discussion on the future of raised bogs in Ireland last Wednesday, 23 August.
Members of the Living Bog, a raised bog restoration project, part funded by the EU LIFE and the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, as well as other specialists, spoke to attendees about the importance of holding on to this important resource.
“Raised bogs are synonymous with the midlands and are formed by retreating glaciers where vegetation filled up the space and sphagnum, a genus of approximately 380 accepted species of mosses, causes a dome shape,” Ronan Casey, Public Awareness Manager with The Living Bog, told the attendees. “They are among the world’s oldest national ecosystems. We are currently working on 12 of the 53 Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) in seven counties. At the end of our five year project, we hope to have improved 2,700 hectares or 80 per cent of high area – the equivalent of 7,000 Croke Parks. 40 per cent of the land is still privately owned, so we need landowner support.”
Mr. Casey explained that they would create the conditions for active raised bogs growth through peat damns, barriers and sluices, combined with drainage management plans around the bogs. “We will also be creating awareness of SACs and Natura 2000, which is a European network of important ecological sites. We are basically rewetting the bogs so 180km of drains will be blocked on the 12 sites, using 14,000 dams.”
During the presentation, Ronan Casey revealed the extent to which Ireland’s bogs have dried up over the course of the last several centuries. “Our local bog, Garriskil, is the third biggest of our 12, and it has about 51 hectares of active raised bog, which is a living bog continuing to grow, but 49 per cent of this bog has been cut away. It used to be 5,000 hectares in the 1800s.”
Mr. Casey used images to showcase how large lakes that once inhabited the bog had now disappeared. He also spoke of how restoration had begun on Garriskil Bog when the state took ownership of the bog in the 1990s. Mr Casey said the bogs are home to hundreds of plant species, many completely unique to raised bogs which they wished to conserve. “We are looking at bog drains of 700 metres and cutover drains of 1,400 metres and putting in 1,000 dams in total with some plastic dams.”
Mr Casey revealed that a bird once psynonemous with all bogs, the curlew, was currently under serious threat.”There are only around 124 breeding pair of curlews left in the whole of Ireland and there is a task force underway to try to save them. He also spoke of the many species of sphagnum moss, moths and butterflies that inhabit Garriskil Bog, including the carnivorous Sundew Plant. “We want to give the bogs back to local communities for educational use and would encourage facilities like birdwatch towers and bug motels and visitor facilitation as well as the creation of looped walks,” he said.
Catríona Finnen, Conservation Ranger at National Parks and Wildlife Service, spoke of how bogs provide us with a rich and fascinating source of information about our ancestors as well at a plethora of unique wildlife. “You can take a sample and find out what people were growing when they first started farming in the area. There are so many rare animals, plants and insects that are not found anywhere else.”
Also speaking at the event was Irish writer and television programme maker Manchán Magan, who gave an impassioned speech on Ireland’s discordant relationship with its bogs. “There seems to be a disconnection between us and our boglands. There was a time when the Midlands was the core element of Ireland, particularly with Uisneach. There is something lighting within us again.”
