Threats to the survival of peatlands
Many of these past peatland uses only
exist now in folklore – the traditions are
recorded but they are rarely practised these days.
This is partly because around the
nineteenth century, views changed as the Industrial
Revolution took hold: bogs were seen as 'wet
deserts', a wasted resource in need of reclamation to
make the land useful. So the old sustainable or
small-scale ways of using peatlands were replaced by
destruction – commercial-scale peat cutting and
mining. These industries have shaped this area of
Scotland, where peat and underlying coal seams are
part of the industrial heritage – they
helped literally to fuel the growth of towns and
industries.
Peat is still very important to other
Scottish industries. Without it whisky would taste
very different. Much of our water supply is still
filtered by peat because many reservoirs are located
in upland areas where peat and heathland are common.
In addition to peat extraction and
mining the coal, gravel and clay beneath it, the
three other main threats in the last few centuries
have been forestry, agriculture and horticulture.
1.
Forestry:
Forestry is an important type of land use on
peatlands. This started in the eighteenth century on
a small scale, but it is really since the
establishment of the Forestry Commission in the early
twentieth century and the development of deep
ploughing technology in the 1950s that planting
conifers, like pine and spruce, expanded on bogs.
To afforest peat it is essential to
first drain the upper peat layers well to give the
trees a chance of surviving. The surface peat starts
drying and this is made worse as the trees grow and
mature because their roots suck more water away
– the bog shrinks, cracks and decays. This is
worrying because it releases so-called
‘Greenhouse Gases.'
Global concerns: future
climatic change>
Many plantations are maturing now and
since the 1980s and 1990s fewer new plantations have
been planted on peat that is more than 1m deep
because the value of bogs has been recognised and
conservation plans have been established.
2.
Agriculture:
Late nineteenth century changes in attitudes to bogs
included the expansion of agriculture onto drained
peat, especially for pasture. This, with
afforestation, has been a major factor contributing
to the loss of raised bogs since the 1940s. A graphic
example of the impact of agriculture can be seen in
East Anglia, where much of the prime agricultural
land is drained peat. The tops of two metal posts,
known as the Holme Fen posts, now stand around 4
metres above the ground surface but in 1850 this is
where the peat surface lay.
3.
Horticulture:
Today industrial peat extraction is the biggest
threat to bogs. Peat is used extensively for compost
in gardens because it is so good at retaining water
and has a consistently low amount of nutrients. In
England and Wales government figures show that more
than 70% of areas where peat extraction is allowed on
raised bogs is on or next to SSSIs – Sites which
are of Special Scientific Interest because of their
wildlife. Often this permission dates back to days
when peat was largely cut by hand.
Now industrial-scale peat
‘mining’ removes thousands of tons each
year, leaving a bare and desolated landscape, which
has lost not only its biodiversity – the wealth
of plants and animals – but also any archaeology
and all information about past environments over the
last 10000 years.
Peat stripping © SNH
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