Best Practice in Raised Bog Restoration in Ireland
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ISSN 1393 – 6670 Best practice in raised bog restoration in Ireland Irish Wildlife Manuals No. 99 Best practice in raised bog restoration in Ireland Francis Mackin1, Alan Barr1, Patrick Rath1, Maurice Eakin2, Jim Ryan2, Rebecca Jeffrey2, Fernando Fernandez Valverde3 1 RPS Ireland Ltd 2 National Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht 3 Ecology and Environmental Consultants Ireland Ltd Citation: Mackin, F., Barr, A., Rath, P., Eakin, M., Ryan, J., Jeffrey, R. & Fernandez Valverde, F. (2017) Best practice in raised bog restoration in Ireland. Irish Wildlife Manuals, No. 99. National Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Ireland. Keywords: Active raised bog, Degraded raised bog, Annex I, Habitats Directive, Restoration, Conservation, Drains, Forestry, Dams, Ecology, Hydrology Cover photos: Francis Mackin, Raymond Flynn, Bord na Móna The NPWS Project Officer for this report was: Maurice Eakin: [email protected] Irish Wildlife Manuals Series Editors: R. Jeffrey & F. Marnell © National Parks and Wildlife Service 2017 ISSN 1393 – 6670 Best Practice in Raised Bog Restoration in Ireland ________________________________________ Contents Contents .......................................................................................................................................................... i Executive summary ...................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................................... v 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 1 2. Raised bog habitats ................................................................................................................................ 3 2.1 Active Raised Bog ......................................................................................................................... 6 2.1.1 Microtopography of ARB ......................................................................................................... 6 2.1.2 ARB vegetation ......................................................................................................................... 8 2.1.3 Associated Annex I habitats ..................................................................................................... 8 2.2 Degraded Raised Bog ..................................................................................................................10 2.3 Transitional areas between high bog and surrounding mineral soils ......................................11 2.4 Hydrological requirements of ARB ............................................................................................12 3. Main threats to Irish raised bogs ..........................................................................................................15 3.1 Drainage .......................................................................................................................................16 3.2 Forestry .........................................................................................................................................17 3.3 Burning .........................................................................................................................................17 3.4 Water abstraction .........................................................................................................................17 4. Protected raised bogs in Ireland...........................................................................................................18 4.1 Conservation status of Annex I raised bog habitats ..................................................................18 4.2 Conservation objectives for raised bog habitats ........................................................................19 5. Restoration of raised bogs in Ireland ...................................................................................................20 5.2 Typical restoration measures and their application on Irish raised bogs.................................20 5.3 Drain blocking ..............................................................................................................................21 5.3.1 Overview of drain blocking ....................................................................................................21 5.3.2 Effectiveness of the method ....................................................................................................25 5.3.3 Planning ...................................................................................................................................25 i Best Practice in Raised Bog Restoration in Ireland ________________________________________ 5.3.4 Method used on cutover areas................................................................................................ 26 5.3.5 Partial drain blocking .............................................................................................................. 29 5.3.6 Complete infilling of drains .................................................................................................... 30 5.4 Vegetation removal ..................................................................................................................... 31 5.4.1 Removal of coniferous forestry............................................................................................... 31 5.4.2 Scrub / tree clearance ................................................................................................................... 33 5.5 Marginal bunds ............................................................................................................................ 34 5.6 Inoculation with Sphagnum ......................................................................................................... 36 5.7 Raised bog excavation/re-profiling............................................................................................. 37 5.8 Bunding on high bog ................................................................................................................... 39 5.9 Restoration of industrially harvested peatlands ........................................................................ 42 5.10 Monitoring ................................................................................................................................... 43 5.10.1 Ecological monitoring ......................................................................................................... 44 5.10.2 Hydrological monitoring .................................................................................................... 44 5.11 Restoration planning for raised bogs ......................................................................................... 46 5.12 Implementing a restoration plan ................................................................................................ 47 5.12.1 Drainage management measures ....................................................................................... 47 5.12.2 Developing a detailed programme of restoration measures ............................................ 47 5.12.3 Site preparation ................................................................................................................... 48 5.12.4 Machine specification .......................................................................................................... 48 5.12.5 Site personnel and machine operatives ............................................................................. 49 5.14 Best practice methodology .......................................................................................................... 50 6. Bibliography & relevant literature ....................................................................................................... 52 Appendix A: Raised Bog Restoration Guidance Notes.............................................................................. 54 ii Best Practice in Raised Bog Restoration in Ireland ________________________________________ Executive summary Of the 310,000 hectares of raised bog estimated to have originally occurred in Ireland, only 50,000 hectares now remains, and much of this is in poor ecological condition. This guidance document has been produced to provide a scientific basis for restoration of raised bog habitats in Ireland and to compile the current best practice techniques for raised bog restoration. Raised bogs formed in shallow lake basins or topographic depressions at the end of the last glaciation, approximately 10,000 years ago. They are made up of deep peat, which is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation that forms in certain wetland conditions. Active raised bog (ARB) comprises the wettest and least damaged vegetation on a raised bog. It is a habitat that is severely threatened and in danger of extinction, due to the rate and extent of loss over the past number of decades. ARB is a priority habitat as listed on Annex I of the EU Habitats Directive. Ireland has a particular responsibility for the conservation and restoration of ARB, as it is estimated to hold approximately half of the Atlantic biogeographic region’s resource of the habitat. There are other