The Falkirk Lowland Raised Bog Restoration Project will restore 260ha of lowland raised bog across the Slammanan Plateau in Falkirk. Bogs offer enormous carbon and water storage capabilities and are home to many rare and specialist species. By restoring degraded areas of lowland raised bog, we will help to decrease carbon emissions, reduce local flooding events and improve habitat for wildlife in the area.
Name of Project: Falkirk Lowland Raised Bog Restoration Project
Duration of Project: November 2019 – March 2025
Location of Project: Slammannan Plateau, Scotland (near Falkirk & Cumbernauld)
Species benefiting from Project: Invertebrates and wildlife
Project funded by: Scottish Power Energy Networks (SPEN)
What are lowland raised bogs?
Lowland raised bogs are formed on top of impermeable ground, such as clay. Sphagnum moss plays a key role in the creation of our peatlands and peat bogs, as it grows continuously upward, leaving partially decomposed moss behind that creates peat. Our lowland bogs tend to be ‘domed’ in the middle and sit like a water droplet on the earth, earning the name ‘raised’ as they grow up from the surface. Raised bogs are important as they store massive amounts of carbon (1,620 mega tonnes of carbon in peatlands across Scotland) and water, providing a carbon sink and flood management when they are in good condition. As raised bogs are acidic and create an extreme environment, with little oxygen or decomposition, rare and specialist species have adapted to this habitat. One such example is Round-leaved Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) a carnivorous plant which gets its nutrients from insects that it catches in its sticky, ‘dew’ covered leaves.
The Falkirk Lowland Raised Bog Restoration Project will work to restore nine degraded sites across the Slamannan Plateau in Falkirk. The Slammannan Plateau is a large area composed of scattered and relatively isolated pockets of peatland and farmland south of Falkirk in the Scottish Central Belt. Several of the sites are designated protected status ranging from Falkirk Wildlife Sites to Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) for a variety of reasons, including their importance as winter roosting sites of Taiga Bean Geese (Anser fabilis). Unfortunately, the lowland raised bog sites have been subject to wide-ranging and long-term adverse management, including burning, drainage for peat extraction, mineral extraction, historical afforestation and overgrazing.
The restoration and management techniques used in this project will involve removing scrub and trees and blocking ditches across the bogs to retain water by damming and bunding. Bunding creates walls of solid peat under the ground that act as a barrier and prevents water from escaping. These techniques are aimed at restoring water levels across the bogs and rewetting the surface, allowing active peat formation to continue. During this project, we will work with landowners in the restoration of sites.
Vitally, this project will also provide an improved habitat for invertebrates. It will also improve habitat connectivity across the Slamannan Plateau, allowing all wildlife to move more freely between sites.
Over the course of the project, the sites will be monitored to assess the effectiveness of each intervention and inform the restoration of other bog habitat in the future.
As of December 2024, 120 hectares of peat bog have been restored across the nine sites. The project has also generously received over 1,300 hours of volunteer’s time to help with the restoration works and survey the local wildlife.
How can you get involved?
Communities can get involved through a series of events, workdays, surveying and monitoring.
We will be seeking volunteers to:
– Help remove scrub and trees from bogs – Carry out survey work across the bogs for wildlife – Monitor water level before and after work has been completed on the bogs
If you would like to volunteer on this project, please contact Melissa Shaw (Peatland Conservation Officer) at [email protected].
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