Prospects for bogland areas The Bord na Móna experience

Mark McCorry

What does Bord na Mona do?

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“Bord na Móna announces the largest change of land use in modern Irish history”

125,000 acres of bogland that are now being used to provide energy peat to three power stations will transition to new uses by 2030. After 2030 the company will no longer harvest energy peat and will have completed its move to new sustainable businesses, located across its bogs and landholding.

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“Bord na Móna has been undergoing seismic change as it transitions its traditional peat-based activities towards more sustainable businesses” Mike Quinn , CEO, Bord na Móna

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Corporate Biodiversity Objective: To promote the role of Bord na Móna in enhancing biodiversity and to create awareness of the values of cutaway bogs through wise-use management for biodiversity and carbon

Sustainability – Biodiversity Action Plan

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Bord na Mona bogs

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Biodiversity

Cutaway

Forestry

Industrial

Marginal

Peat Production

Peat Production

49%

Cutaway

18%

Marginal

14%

Current land-use

Rehabilitation

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• EPA IPC Licences for peat production: Condition 10

…plan for permanent rehabilitation of the cutaway boglands ….

• Rehabilitation plan: a programme to manage a site for its environmental

stabilisation (re-vegetation and peat containment)

• Natural colonisation + targeted rehabilitation

= environmental stabilisation & sites with biodiversity value

• Rehabilitation provides space/opportunities for biodiversity

• After-use & future management of cutaway will also affect

rehabilitation

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From this…….

To this…….

The main aims of cutaway rehabilitation are to

(1) ensure the stabilisation of the former peat production areas,

(2) minimise potential peat run-off from the site while ,

(3) encouraging re-establishment of a diversity of semi-natural habitats appropriate

to the characteristics of the site.

Rehabilitation not the same as after-use and development - but linked

• Rehabilitation about environmental stabilisation of the former peat production

areas

• Future after-use is Renewable energy, Amenity, Ecosystem services, Forestry,

Industrial development etc

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Derries

2000

Derries

2004

Derries

2009

Derries

2011

Lake

Glacial deposits

Post-glacial Midlands

Why talk about fen habitats – why not bogs?

Glacial deposits

Fen Peat

Initial bog formation – development of fen peat

Glacial deposits

Fen Peat

Bog Peat

Glacial deposits

Fen Peat

25 year production line

BnM industrial peat production

Glacial deposits

Fen Peat

Gravity

drainage

BnM cutaway bog

Glacial deposits

Fen Peat wetlands

Birch scrub, fen,

Wetlands

mosaic

Birch woodland

and heath

Development of cutaway habitats

& current environment

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Soft Rush-

dominated poor fen

Bog Cotton

-dominated poor fen

Wetlands

& Open water

Birch scrub

Dry Heath

Dry calcareous grassland

Pioneer cutaway habitats

• No significant raised bog restoration in typical milled peat cutaway

• Due to environmental factors …. Midlands geology, High pH, hydrology…..

• RB Sphagnum growth typically poor

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Lullymore

2000 Lullymore

2016

Berm

created

Main Outfall

raised

Blocked

outfall

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Targeted Management

Fertiliser and lime

2010

2013

100% vegetation cover

-grasses and rushes

-some birch and willow

Rehabilitation

Strategic Framework for the Future Use of Peatlands

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• After-use development

• Published in 2011

• Provides context in which future

developments by the company are

considered

• Future uses that will be considered and the

main factors that influence those uses

• Cutaway bogs present a range of complex

options that require to be considered on a

bog by bog basis

• Future uses

• Renewable energy,

industrial/commercial, ecosystem

services, amenity etc

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Factors affecting potential uses of cutaway

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After use of cutaway - agriculture

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After use of cutaway - forestry

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Mount Lucas Windfarm 80 MW Infrastructure 3-4% of site area

After use of cutaway – renewable energy

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Creating sites with multi land-use value

Combining land-uses

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Lough Boora Discovery Park

Rehabilitation & After-use

amenity, biodiversity, forestry

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Lough Boora Discovery Park

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Lough Boora Discovery Park

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Rehabilitation & After-use

• amenity, biodiversity, forestry

Community-led projects

Abbeyleix Bog

Bord na Móna Bog Restoration Programme

• Bogs drained early 1980s

• Never developed for industrial peat production

• Bog restoration started 2010

• Ongoing project –

• Approx 2000 ha high bog planned for re-wetting

• Very significant project to help Irelands meet its EU Habitat Directive commitments in relation to raised bog conservation

Drains blocked to raise water levels

re-wetting the bog and

aiding the natural development of

Sphagnum-rich plant communities (active

raised bog) and peatland habitat function.

Bord na Móna Bog Restoration Programme

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Carbon sequestration - sink or sources? Oweninny CARBAL Re-wetted cutaway, Co. Mayo Carbon Sink

Blackwater Reedflux Reedbeds Sink/Source (2 years)

Moyarwood CarbonRestore (5 years) Re-wetted high bog Small source – Methane

Lullymore Carbon flux tower (UCC/TCD/WIT) Wetland and woodland mosaic (1 year……..)

River Suck floodplain

Garryduff/Kilmacshane/

Blackwater

(winter flooding 2009)

Flood attenuation along the Shannon?

Derrycashel

Future wetlands?

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Whooper Swan

950 in 2009/2010

Internationally important numbers

(Annex I, EU Birds Directive species)

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Predicted Potential Future Habitats

BnM midlands estate – indicative POTENTIAL future habitats* (after-use?)

Habitat % Aggregated Habitats %

Bog 9.7 Bog 23.1 Regenerating bog habitats* 13.4

Open water 0.7 Wetlands 23.8 Wetlands 12.1

Fen 0.4

Woodland-wetlands mosaic 10.6

Woodland 32.2 Native woodland 44.9 Woodland-grassland mosaic 0.0

Woodland-heathland mosaic 12.5

Scrub 0.2

Agriculture 1.2 Other 8.2 Built 1.3

Conifer plantation 4.4

Grassland 0.1

Heath 0.0

Hedgerow 0.0

Other 0.4

Riparian 0.7

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We are always looking at new uses for our land that are environmentally sustainable and commercially viable

Building a future where Bord na Móna is a profitable company, and also committed to protecting the environment.

We have a strong link with the communities we serve going back generations. Our sustainability agenda is deeply invested in creating the brightest possible future for them.

Sustainability - People, planet, profit

Thank You