Peatland Restoration Theory and Principles - an attendee's perspective
- Carys Mainprize
- 18 minutes ago
- 7 min read
Two Day Training Course | Eskdalemuir | November 2024
By Kerry Morrison
April to September is peatland survey season and a busy time of year for CCC’s Team Peat. It’s the vital work required ahead of the restoration season.
But what is needed to get to this point?
One of the things that CCC is known for is its peatland training programme, funded by Peatland Action. I have long since wondered what is delivered at these events and who goes to them, so in November I joined the two-day training programme, Peatland Restoration: Theory and Principes, held at Old School Hub and Cafe at Eskdalemuir.
I have worked part time for CCC for two and a half years, delivering their arts strand, firstly as the Peatland Connections project officer, and more recently (since February 2024) as the CCC socio-ecological artist. Creating artwork and engagement events connected to peatland restoration, I’ve needed to understand what goes on up there in the hills, what a degraded peatland is, why they need repairing, and how this is done. Prior to attending the training course, my knowledge was gleaned from listening to CCC’s “Team Peat” updates, reading about peatland restoration (mainly online, for example the IUCN peatland programme website and the Peatland Action Technical Compendium), and asking questions. I thought I had a reasonable and comprehensive knowledge, until I attended the course, during which I learnt so much more.
Day 1
The training began with introductions: who was in the room and our connection to peatlands. Our cohort included engineers, on the ground workers who operate diggers and manually install bunds and dams, research students, an intern, peatland officers new to the job, a Peatland Action communications officer, and me.
Emily (Dr Taylor, CCC Director) began by introducing us to a peatland conditions.
1 | Near natural |
2 | Modified |
3 | Drained |
4 | Actively eroding |
5 | Currently under forestry |
6 | Currently under scrub |
Each condition was illustrated with a slide. Several of the slides were LiDAR images, a mapping technique that reveals the ridges and lines scored into the landscape both naturally and by people. So far so good. I was feeling comfortable. This was stuff I knew, so I could nod my head knowingly. (Although, deciphering LiDAR images is a skill in itself, as we were to discover on Day 2).
We dipped into peatland conditions that release carbon, for example, actively eroding hags and gullies. An actively eroding hag/gully releases 17.72 tCO2 eq ha-1 yr-1. Post restoration with re-vegetation of bare peat, this drops from 17.72 to 3.42 tCO2 eq ha-1 yr-1. That’s quite some saving per hectare per year, highlighting what peatland restoration programs are working to achieve: keeping carbon where it belongs, in the ground.
To repair and stabilize eroded peatlands, folk like Team Peat need to understand the lay of the land; what is happening where and how best to repair. This begins with mapping the peatland, starting with a desk-based survey using aerial imagery and LiDAR (if available). This is followed by ground truthing – getting out onto the peatland and surveying it on foot to verify features, for example, is it a drainage ditch? Is it an eroded gully? Or is it a natural watercourse? Walking the peatland, using your senses, and feeling the ground beneath your feet reveals more than erosion features, for example, you can feel how boggy the ground is. Ground truthing is a critical process when designing a restoration programme. It helps inform where machinery can get to and where work is best done by hand.
Each erosion feature or state of degradation requires restoration techniques best suited to the condition and topography. One technique commonly applied for drainage ditches is the installation artificial dams by different approaches such as:
· Turf dams
· Wooden and composite dams
· Drain re-profiling
· Wave damming and zipping
When it comes to damming, it’s not a one-size-fits-all. Emily talked us through which dam where; the best suited for the job and why; placement and spacing; and, for peat and turf dam techniques, where to ‘borrow’ peat and turf and how to ensure turfs id knitted back together.
From drainage ditches and dams, we moved onto hag reprofiling, gullies, and flat areas of bare peat. Then, scrub removal and forest to bog restoration, which is a whole other ball game requiring felling, stump flipping, and ground smoothing, resulting in what looks like an absolutely wrecked landscape as opposed to a peatland in recovery.
For all restoration programmes, access must be considered: Is it possible to get machinery on the peatland? What is the best route in? How steep is the degraded area? Is it too steep for machinery? Are there areas that pose the risk of machines becoming bogged in? What are the alternatives?
Alongside technical peatland restoration considerations, restoration designers also need to figure out who should be contacted about the restoration, for example, local communities, farmers, landowners, and SEPA. This is a significant part of peatland restoration project development and required to meet conditions of grant funding and the Local Authority Permitted Development Rights.
To conclude Day 1, Emily took us through a series of slides assessing restoration success, and, within this section, included examples of poor restoration work where techniques have failed or inappropriate techniques have been applied; as Emily introduced it: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
As the course progressed throughout the day, the tangle of stuff (condition, techniques, logistics, permissions, licences, access, safety, etc.) that needs to be considered was revealed and discussed, with ample time for us to ask questions. To say that there was a lot to take in on Day 1 (227 slides!) doesn’t quite hit the mark. I thought I knew about peatland restoration, the various erosion features, and restoration techniques, but I hadn’t realised just how nuanced peatland restoration design is nor how complicated the process is. The level of skills required blew me away. I left in absolute awe of those who tackle and address peatland degradation, and design restoration programmes.
Day 2
Day two was a workshop day. Emily was joined by Anna Basley (CCC Peatland Programme manager). The cohort split into two groups. A slide of a degraded peatland was projected, and Emily asked: what are we looking at here? Our table fell silent; what were we looking at?
Cautiously we began to discuss what we might be looking at and collectively we began to decipher the image. Not everything some of us we thought we were looking at was what we were looking at. An arrangement of lines that I interpreted as drains were in fact an old peat cutting.
Another slide, another task: What restoration techniques would you use for this peatland and where would you begin the process of restoration?
Throughout the workshop, slides of different peatlands with different sets of challenges were presented. For each slide presented to us, everything we were asked to do, like identifying a feasible route for the heavy plant, Emily had talked us through on Day 1. Yet, without the opportunity to discuss options around the table - alongside subtle guidance from Anna and Emily - I would have struggled; being taught techniques through a slide lecture imparts information; being tasked to apply that information to a complex site and location requires recollection, logic, and initiative. However, being in a supportive environment where we could talk about what we were looking at and collectively recollect what we had learnt from the day before, enabled me to understand which course of action would be appropriate and why. The workshop really helped to consolidate all the information presented on Day 1. It was also an opportunity to learn more about peatland restoration through sharing our knowledge and experiences. At the table I was sat on were three young men employed by a company contracted to deliver the physical peatland restoration work. These men knew, first hand, the labour required to install dams, and the skill needed to operate machinery on peatlands. Until listening to them speak, it hadn’t dawned on me that wave damming and zipping is a technique performed in front of the digger with the digger tracking backwards aligning over the drain being repaired. The digger operator is working forwards, backwards, and side to side for each wave dam and zip. Listening to their experiences of peatland restoration, and of being up on an exposed peatland in challenging weather conditions, was riveting. What they brought to the table was a practical knowledge of this remarkable work; work that all of us who attended the training now know much more about.
January through to March is when peatland restoration happens. I’m writing this blog at the start of 2025. It’s January. Weather conditions in the southwest of Scotland are harsh. Hoar frost has formed and the frozen snow beneath foot is sharp and crunchy. I’ve had the luxury of writing indoors, in the warm, while my Team Peat colleagues, and people like the three young men, are out there, high up on a peatland in freezing conditions working to repair our peatlands and making sure that the work is done to the highest possible standard.
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