Project Director, Katy and Habitats and Species Manager, Neil ventured to the furthest areas of our ‘big bog’ to do some informal monitoring of our peatland restoration work.
In 2023, with funding from Natural Resources Wales’ National Peatland Action Programme, we were able to experiment with techniques for reducing the Molinia cover on our areas of deep peat. Following consultation with an ecologist and with the help of a specialist contractor, we scraped the purple moor grass from some areas, using the contours of the land to create small dams before planting sphagnum moss plugs. As is the nature of experimentation, not all areas have been 100% successful but on their latest visit, Katie and Neil were pleased to see great success in the areas of deepest peat – the sphagnum moss is thriving and the small ‘ponds’ are alive with lizards, frogs and dragonflies. We’ll continue with the work this year, adapting our techniques based on last year’s discoveries.