Glenfeshie trials new peatland restoration technique

July 26, 2018

Contractors Barker & Bland from Cumbria started this week on peatland restoration work on an upland blanket bog in Glenfeshie Estate in the Cairngorms National Park.

The contractors are using a technique new to Scotland where large turfs are taken from donor areas and used to completely cover areas of bare peat. Erosion gully walls and peat hags are also re-profiled and covered with donor turf.

The borrow pits in the donor areas are filled in by stretching surrounding vegetation. Turf is cut using 8 ton excavators then moved to the site using a very low pressure truck on tracks. Over the next three months a site covering 134 hectares (the equivalent of 1064 Olympic swimming pools) will be put under restoration management funded by a Peatland Action grant and Wildland Ltd.

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