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New Eyes on the Bog: Expanding Community Monitoring from the Hebrides to the Alps

Eyes on the Bog rust rod reading. Credit Jane Akerman

Five new organisations have been awarded funding for long-term, low-cost peatland monitoring.

Eyes on the Bog is the IUCN UK Peatland Programme’s low-cost, long-term monitoring toolkit, empowering communities, conservation groups and land managers to track the health of peatlands over time. In November, we were delighted to award funding to five new organisations to establish Eyes on the Bog plots - stretching from the Isle of Lewis to the Italian Alps.

The new partners - Atlantic 58, Butterfly Conservation, Scottish Woodlands, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Turin - will each use the toolkit in innovative ways to better understand peatland condition while engaging local communities in hands-on monitoring.

Eyes on the Bog logo

First plots for Italy and the Outer Hebrides

The University of Turin will install the first-ever Eyes on the Bog plots in Italian alpine peatlands, complementing existing long-term vegetation monitoring led by citizen scientists from the Italian Alpine Club. This marks an exciting new international milestone for the programme.

Meanwhile, ecological consultancy Atlantic 58 will establish the first Eyes on the Bog plots in the Outer Hebrides, using a curlew totemic marker and fixed-point photography cradle to engage walkers along the Tolsta–Ness Heritage Trail.

Linking peatland health with wildlife and restoration

Butterfly Conservation will deploy Eyes on the Bog in Yorkshire to explore the relationship between peatland condition and populations of rare butterflies and moths. Their plots will feature a butterfly totemic marker to help bring monitoring to life for local communities.

The University of Edinburgh will integrate Eyes on the Bog into its ‘Forest and Peatland’ project in Wester Ross, using the methods to assess peatland condition both before and after restoration.

Scottish Woodlands will establish monitoring on their peatland restoration sites at Glen Dye Moor and Lochrosque, using a 360-degree camera to capture long-term habitat change and a totemic marker near the Cairn o’ Mount viewpoint to showcase ongoing restoration to visitors.

Glen Dye Moor is a large-scale peatland restoration project in Southern Aberdeenshire aiming to restore over ~1800 ha of degraded peatland across ~10 phases of restoration work. After completing the first two phases of restoration and working on a third, we are excited to join the Eyes on the Bog monitoring programme by setting up a first monitoring site over some recently re-wetted peatland.
The peatland work at Glen Dye Moor is part of a landscape scale project combining woodland creation, peatland restoration and river catchment work across the >6000 ha estate. As well as contributing to net zero targets, the project also aims to deliver multiple social, economic and environmental benefits to the area and wider River Dee catchment.
Erin Stoll, Peatland Project Manager
Scottish Woodlands
View of a series of dams with bog pools behind them on an area of moorland with hills in the distance.

Looking Northwest to Meluncart and Clachnaben over new pools at Phase 2 of the Glen Dye Moor restoration project.

Credit: E Stoll (Scottish Woodlands).

It’s really exciting to see Eyes on the Bog expanding and being used alongside existing long-term monitoring to better understand peatland health. Peatlands are slow places - peat forms at just 1 mm per year when they are healthy - so they need monitoring that truly lasts.
We’re especially pleased to see more sites being established in Scotland, where so much of the UK’s peat is found, alongside the first plots on Peatland Code sites, the first plots in Italy, and the first in the Outer Hebrides. Following the success of our previous funding round, which supported some stunning totemic markers, we’re looking forward to seeing peatland wildlife brought to life by local artists to inspire communities and help grow an even bigger army of citizen scientists.
Jane Akerman
IUCN UK Peatland Programme Manager

A growing digital future for Eyes on the Bog

Alongside this new funding, the IUCN UK Peatland Programme - working with our host organisation, the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts - is developing a new data collection app and shared data platform, due to launch next year. This will help standardise how data is collected and shared, and strengthen the growing community of Eyes on the Bog volunteers and peatland champions.

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