Boglands are precious landscapes, and the vast wilderness of moorland in the Flow Country in northern Scotland is believed to be the world’s largest area of ​​blanket bog, a rare type of peatland that covers the landscape like a blanket and is formed in a cool, wet climate.
Peat is created mainly from sphagnum moss, and when the plant dies, its remains do not fully decompose in the acidic waters of the bog, and so the dead moss gets buried and turns into peat along with the carbon content. Flow Country is so vast that peatlands store 400 million tonnes of carbon, more than double the carbon stored in all UK woodlands, and are making a huge contribution to tackling the climate crisis.
But Scotland’s peatlands now face warmer summers and more frequent droughts, which release carbon back into the atmosphere, making it crucial to keep the bogs healthy. Scotland has become a world leader in moorland restoration. One of the Forsinard Flows projects is to clear plantations of foreign conifers and plug drainage ditches to raise water levels. And while it may take decades for marshes to fully recover, they are returning to health.
