Sphagnum moss maybe not the most interesting of life forms. It likes areas that are soaking wet, and cold, and have little nutrients. In fact, they get much of their nutrients from the rain, and intermingle with plants that evolved to eat insects. But Sphagnum moss has had one of the biggest impacts on Irish life than any other plant (minus the potato) and has fueled not only people’s homes and gardens, but helped the country create its own electricity.
Sphagnum is also called peat moss because once it dies, it forms the soft, spongy stuff called peat that many of us have bought to amend our garden soil. Because sphagnum creates such an acidic environment, it builds upon itself, sometimes rising close to 2 mm a year. Bogs are very sensitive to their hydrology and need a constant, undisturbed supply of water to keep their sponge full, to continue their growth. They often start their growth in a lake bed and slowly fill it in (called a fen). Then they will continue to expand to form a dome shaped bulge. This type of bog is called a
raised bog. These bogs are unique and host a huge diversity of plant and animal life, but are under threat from exploitation.
I must admit, I have used peat moss before, even in the garden I constructed in Ballinafad, but I have become an advocate of not using it.
For one, its not sustainable in any sense of the word. It takes hundreds of years to build what takes seconds to harvest. Also the shear size of bare brown spots across Ireland is appalling in itself. It is being mined with the largest of tractors. Because it is always in extremely wet areas, huge ditches must be dug, and most often in commercial sites, water is pumped out, so that it dries enough for extraction. Bord na Mona, the largest Irish peat miner, also operates electricity plants burning peat, and produces compact “briquettes” used as firewood. The smell of these briquettes, I must say, intoxicatingly smells like home, or maybe the pipe your granpa would smoke on Christmas. But when the peat burns, its literally turning Ireland into smoke.
Some of the peat is extracted using a tractor which runs along the ground, cuts narrow slabs of turf, squeezes it into a long brick, and then people come by to stack it into a Tepee shape to dry during the summer. These are then delivers to homes to for storage, to heat their home.
Much of the controversy lies in the SHA’s or Special Habitat Areas, where 10 years ago the government warned people they couldn’t harvest peat from these areas. The 10 years ran out last year and they are still harvesting. The government was under so much pressure they gave a one year extension.
And granted, these SHA’s only cover about 2% of all peat extraction areas, but nonetheless, I’ve heard stories of fights breaking out between neighbours who felt differently about exploiting their peat. Because “digging turf” goes back centuries, and restricting was has been for many families a weekend event, is a stab to people resisting change.
But much like our ancient forests in Oregon, bogs have been exploited and there has been a 92% loss of raised bogs in Republic of Ireland. But peat extraction is taking the soil, whereas our logging operations cause soil erosion, but they aren’t mining the soil. There is only so much ground you can dig up until you hit the bare earth. Even
Bord da Mona thinks it will run out of resources in 10-15 years, and has been investing heavily in wind and other energy to help to company survive after the last of the peat has been harvested. It will take at least 4,000 years to replace what they extracted in the last 100 years, if, of course, these lands were able to be restored to their original condition. They most likely will become lakes, or deep ditches with surrounded by scrubland.
Restoration is taking place and some progress is being made, but in the larger picture, the Irish aren’t protecting their unique natural heritage. Next time you buy some soil, think about peat-free, because you are inadvertently supporting strip mining of wetlands, of a unique ecosystem and one of the few carbon sinks on the planet.
Sphagnum moss maybe not the most interesting of life forms. It likes areas that are soaking wet, and cold, and have little nutrients. In fact, they get much of their nutrients from the rain, and intermingle with plants that evolved to eat insects. But Sphagnum moss has had one of the biggest impacts on Irish life than any other plant (minus the potato) and has fueled not only people’s homes and gardens, but helped the country create its own electricity.
Sphagnum is also called peat moss because once it dies, it forms the soft, spongy stuff called peat that many of us have bought to amend our garden soil. Because sphagnum creates such an acidic environment, it builds upon itself, sometimes rising close to 2 mm a year. Bogs are very sensitive to their hydrology and need a constant, undisturbed supply of water to keep their sponge full, to continue their growth. They often start their growth in a lake bed and slowly fill it in (called a fen). Then they will continue to expand to form a dome shaped bulge. This type of bog is called a raised bog. These bogs are unique and host a huge diversity of plant and animal life, but are under threat from exploitation.
I must admit, I have used peat moss before, even in the garden I constructed in Ballinafad, but I have become an advocate of not using it.
For one, its not sustainable in any sense of the word. It takes hundreds of years to build what takes seconds to harvest. Also the shear size of bare brown spots across Ireland is appalling in itself. It is being mined with the largest of tractors. Because it is always in extremely wet areas, huge ditches must be dug, and most often in commercial sites, water is pumped out, so that it dries enough for extraction. Bord na Mona, the largest Irish peat miner, also operates electricity plants burning peat, and produces compact “briquettes” used as firewood. The smell of these briquettes, I must say, intoxicatingly smells like home, or maybe the pipe your granpa would smoke on Christmas. But when the peat burns, its literally turning Ireland into smoke.
Some of the peat is extracted using a tractor which runs along the ground, cuts narrow slabs of turf, squeezes it into a long brick, and then people come by to stack it into a Tepee shape to dry during the summer. These are then delivers to homes to for storage, to heat their home.
Much of the controversy lies in the SHA’s or Special Habitat Areas, where 10 years ago the government warned people they couldn’t harvest peat from these areas. The 10 years ran out last year and they are still harvesting. The government was under so much pressure they gave a one year extension. 
And granted, these SHA’s only cover about 2% of all peat extraction areas, but nonetheless, I’ve heard stories of fights breaking out between neighbours who felt differently about exploiting their peat. Because “digging turf” goes back centuries, and restricting was has been for many families a weekend event, is a stab to people resisting change.
But much like our ancient forests in Oregon, bogs have been exploited and there has been a 92% loss of raised bogs in Republic of Ireland. But peat extraction is taking the soil, whereas our logging operations cause soil erosion, but they aren’t mining the soil. There is only so much ground you can dig up until you hit the bare earth. Even Bord da Mona thinks it will run out of resources in 10-15 years, and has been investing heavily in wind and other energy to help to company survive after the last of the peat has been harvested. It will take at least 4,000 years to replace what they extracted in the last 100 years, if, of course, these lands were able to be restored to their original condition. They most likely will become lakes, or deep ditches with surrounded by scrubland.
Restoration is taking place and some progress is being made, but in the larger picture, the Irish aren’t protecting their unique natural heritage. Next time you buy some soil, think about peat-free, because you are inadvertently supporting strip mining of wetlands, of a unique ecosystem and one of the few carbon sinks on the planet.
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