Peatland ACTION recently released a new case study film about an impressive project in the Highlands that has so far carried out peatland restoration on an area almost a third the size of Inverness.
Strathvaich Estate lies high in the hills between Inverness and Ullapool, and began its peatland restoration journey in 2015. Six phases of work later, over 900 hectares of peatland have so far been put on the road to recovery, with plans to keep going with further restoration until all the most badly damaged peatland is restored. The estate’s owner, Patrick Creasey, estimates there might be as much as three to four times as big an area as they have already tackled still to restore – and he is committed to doing just that.
The film explains how the estate works closely with Peatland ACTION through its land agents to plan, develop and deliver the restoration work. It’s a complex site and a wide range of restoration techniques are being used to tackle the damaged areas of peat, including gully and hag reprofiling, drain damming, bunding and timber dams. These different techniques help to stop the water draining away from the peatland too quickly, raising the water table and helping the special mosses that need this wet environment to re-cover the bare peat areas.
What this means is that the hills hold onto their water for longer, helping to prevent flash flooding downstream after heavy rain. The biodiversity also improves, as the invertebrates thrive in the new vegetation, and the birds and other animals that rely on them for food benefit in turn.
But peatland restoration on remote, high altitude sites like this can be challenging. A lot of restoration work has to take place in the winter, to avoid disturbing breeding birds. That means contractors have to work during short, winter days, dealing with freezing conditions, rain, wind and snow. When the ground is frozen, it can hamper restoration techniques like reprofiling and revegetating, while constant, heavy rain can make navigating across the sodden peat extremely difficult. Contractors need to be skilled and experienced to get it right.
However for those interested in developing the skills, peatland restoration work offers new, green jobs that can benefit the rural economy and allow people to stay close to home for work. For example, Highland Conservation, which carried out the work at Strathvaich, started out with three or four operators and now has 12.
Scotland's Nature 
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