Anja Murray: We have done a great deal of damage to bogs in a very short space of time
Galway Peatlands Co Istock In Connemara, Picture:
We have always had a deep relationship with peat bogs in Ireland. Thousands of years ago, in Neolithic times, people believed peat bogs were the meeting point of sky and earth, portals or entrances to the ‘otherworld’. Votive offerings were often left in bogs, precious objects offered up to appease the goddess of the land and assuage the threat of storms, droughts and plagues. Since we began harvesting deep peat for fuel in the 1960s, countless artefacts have been unearthed from bogs, including the bodies of sacrificed kings from the Bronze Age.
We have come a long way since in our understanding, especially in the past 20 years. We now understand, for example, that the conditions that preserve bog bodies, bog butter and even ancient manuscripts, are the same conditions that make peat bogs enormous stores of fossil carbon.
All the plant material that accumulates as wet peat is actively sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. When we drain peat bogs and harvest the peat, this stored carbon is released into the atmosphere. Because we have already drained and damaged most of our peat bogs, huge quantities of carbon dioxide are escaping from peatlands and contributing to climate heating. In Ireland, drained peatlands account for emissions of 11 million tonnes of CO2 each year, the same quantity of CO2 emitted by the entire energy sector in 2018.
To address this gaping problem, people all over the world have been embarking on projects to ‘rewet’ peatlands. Rewetting involves raising the water table to re-establish water-saturated conditions. If we have any hope of meeting emissions reduction targets that might keep global heating to below 2o, then rewetting peat bogs must be carried out in addition to stopping emissions from burning fossil fuels, from ruminating cattle, and from other land use changes. Peatland restoration cannot be accounted as a way to offset continued emissions from other sectors, as some suggest. Every available action has to be taken, there is no wiggle room in addressing the climate emergency.
Peat bogs, because of the distinctive nature of the conditions, are home to some very strange plants. Because nothing really breaks down in a natural wet bog, there are very few nutrients available to growing plants. So some have evolved highly specialised ways of overcoming such a challenge. Sundews and Butterworts are plants that have evolved to feed themselves on midges and small flies. These carnivorous plants have glistening sticky tentacles which a passing insect mistakes for a tempting droplet of nectar, but once they land on one of these tentacles, will find themselves stuck. Over the course of a few days, the plant secretes digestive enzymes to consume its catch, an unusual approach for a plant to get the nutrition it needs.
Dragonflies and damselflies are often seen on wet bogs too, shimmering blue and emerald green, darting about over wet pools between the hummocks of colourful sphagnum mosses. Frogs in turn eat the damselflies, a tasty, protein-rich food source for them.
Today, only a tiny proportion of the raised bogs in Ireland are ecologically worthy of conservation, and actively growing raised bog now covers only 0.6% of the original area. We have done a great deal of damage in a very short space of time. Urgent action is now needed to bring back many of the species that rely on bogs from the brink of extinction In Ireland. Our record on implementing environmental law that protects peat bogs is atrocious. The state is only now beginning to fund rewetting and other conservation programmes.
The economics and ethics of harvesting and processing peat no longer stack up: not only does draining peat bogs release millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide, but the fuel itself is more climate polluting than coal. In moving away from harvesting peat, provision must be made to ensure a just transition for the workers of Ireland’s peat industry, protecting the rights and dignity of workers and communities whose livelihoods have depended on peat production.
The industrially harvested peat bogs of the midlands are now in need of rehabilitation to stem the continued seepage of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, long after harvesting has ceased. And then there are the 270,000 hectares of natural peatlands, those where small amounts have occurred, mostly around the periphery of the bog, and these are in need of restoration for the very rare habitats and species they contain. Afforested peatlands, those upland areas blanketed in exotic spruce plantations will also need to be restored - all 300,000 hectares of them.
Currently, less than 10% of peatlands in Ireland are under rehabilitation or restoration.
There is one community showing the way forward for our relationship with bogs. Twenty years ago, a local action group fought to protect Abbeyliex bog from industrial peat harvesting, and after a long but eventually successful campaign, the bog was spared. Now the community take much pride in the bog and it serves as a focal point for the whole community to manage and enjoy. Teams of volunteers run local events out on the bog, the men’s shed have built almost a kilometre of wooden walkway, and schools groups monitor the wildlife that lives in and around the bog. Recently, nesting boxes for barn owls and kestrel box have been erected by the community too. There are communities all over Ireland involved in peatland restoration, while also celebrating the heritage of turf cutting in the past.
Bogs are places that change very little over time, if left to their own devices. When we didn’t know any better, we mined Ireland’s peat bogs to near oblivion. Now that we do know better, we have a small window of opportunity to make amends with the natural world, not only for the benefit of sundews, dragonflies and nesting curlew, but for all our benefit, now and in the future.
- Anja Murray is an ecologist and broadcaster, she is a regular presenter on ‘Eco Eye’ on RTÉ 1 and writes the weekly ‘Nature File’ on RTÉ Lyric FM.