Juanita Browne: Carnivorous plants, reptiles, newts — and so much more in our bogs

I remember the sun beaming down and watching butterflies, and hearing birds singing, and jumping and splashing in our wellies — and of course, the tea and sandwiches never tasted so good.

I'd love if we could all visit or revisit a bog in summer — a living bog, a bog that is wet and growing and that tries to inch up your wellies. Walk out onto the top of a bog and listen for skylarks. Try to hear a cuckoo. Crouch down and see what lives in the bog pools. Pond-dip for tadpoles or baby newts. 

Catch beetles and spiders. Take handfuls of sphagnum moss and squeeze it out to see how much water it holds. See if you can find a common lizard basking in the sun. Look out for butterflies, chase a dragonfly, and see if you can recognise which one it is. Jump up and down and see if you can make the earth move. 

Look for a sundew — a carnivorous plant that traps insects on its sticky petals and devours them like something from a horror film. Catch a frog; collect bog cotton; count the different types of snails you can find. Listen out for meadow pipits and stonechats. 

Watch the swallows and martins swoop over the bog, catching insects. If you’re really lucky and in the right place, you might see a hen harrier hunting.

If you want a closer look at the beauty of peatlands, take a look at the beautiful macro photography and books by award-winning photographer  Tina Claffey.

David Bellamy used to say our bogs were the equivalent of Ireland’s Amazon and needed to be protected. I think to understand this, we need to be open to a new relationship with our bogs and to see them with fresh eyes — not as dull brown places but as living ecosystems that are valuable just as they are. 

The bogs we have left are precious and rare and unique. They are precious because they are a huge part of our biodiversity and also because they hold one of the solutions to climate change — right beneath our feet! It is said that peatlands cover just 3% of the Earth’s surface, but store twice as much carbon as all of the world’s living forests!

When a peatland is drained, the water table drops and the peat’s carbon is exposed to oxygen. This results in carbon dioxide being released into the air. The bogs we have drained must be rewetted in order to lock back in that carbon. 

We must protect the remnant bogs that remain and with the drained cutaway bogs, we have an opportunity to make new wetlands, new national parks and much-needed wildlife refuges out of the lands from which we’ve squeezed so much.

Just like oil, petrol or gas, the more peat is used — the more it is drained and excavated — the more carbon dioxide will be released into the atmosphere, and the warmer our planet will become. 

So next time you’re in a garden centre and you want to pick up a bag of compost, go for the ‘peat-free’ option, and if they don’t have any on display ask them to stock it. Because we really need to keep that peat in the ground!

Some bogs that are well worth a visit

• Clara Bog, County Offaly.
• Girley Bog, County Meath
• Abbeyleix Bog, County Laois

The Living Bog Project, an EU LIFE project, aimed to restore 12 very special raised bogs in seven different counties, some of which have visitor access.

To become involved or support peatland conservation, check out the Irish Peatland Conservation Council.