On a High Note: Restoring Scotland's Peat Bogs

On a High Note: Restoring Scotland’s Peat Bogs

Peat bogs are fascinating ecosystems now recognized as one of the best stores of carbon on Earth. But the spongy wetlands have been substantially drained over the years to make way for farms and development. In Scotland, the Peatland Action Project, which works to restore degraded peatland, was granted £250 million of funding over the next decade for bog restoration.

The organization can even use data from satellites to track "bog breathing" -- how the bog expands and contracts with changing water levels -- making it possible to tell how much carbon the bog is storing.

Flanders Moss is one of Scotland's bogs that is slowly being restored -- its water table is rising and native plant species are returning, the Guardian reports.

"Here in Scotland, we have the opportunity to protect and restore peatlands," Henk Pieter Sterk, of the Peatland Action Project told the Guardian. "It's the easiest thing you can do. Restoring peatlands is a no-brainer.

National Trust for Scotland: Restoring peatland at Mar Lodge Estate NNR, October 25, 2021.

CBS: Environmentalists fight to protect peat bogs essential to balancing carbon emissions, November 7, 2021.