The Trust is delighted to announce that it will receive around £130,000 funding for peatland restoration on five of its wildlife reserves.

This has been awarded through the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Scottish Natural Heritage, through the Peatland Action Fund. It will help the Trust to deliver the Lowland Peatland Restoration Challenge – a range of works to restore and enhance raised bogs across five of the Trust’s wildlife reserves, from Perthshire to the Borders and Dumfries and Galloway.

The following sites will benefit from this funding: Bankhead Moss, Cander Moss, Carsegowan Moss, Longridge Moss and Red Moss of Netherley.
The sites vary significantly in size, type and scale of restoration works required, but they all contain damaged or degraded lowland raised bogs in need of restoration.

Peatland restoration can be a complex process and techniques vary dependent on the needs of a site, but all have a simple goal – to raise groundwater levels and restart the process of active peat formation. Common practices to hold back water on peatlands include blocking drainage ditches by installing dams and removing trees or scrub that can suck water away from the peat mass.

Scotland’s peatlands are internationally important forms of habitat, not only for their wildlife value but also for the wider benefits they provide to society, including carbon capture and storage, and water purification.

Peatlands are also particularly fragile and sensitive; it is imperative that effective management is put in place if they are to continue to provide all their invaluable services. The restoration and enhancement of these ecosystems will also increase society’s resilience to climate change.

Director of Conservation for the Scottish Wildlife Trust, Simon Jones, said: “The Trust is delighted to receive support from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Scottish Natural Heritage, which will enable vital restoration works to take place on these important sites.

“Scotland’s extensive peatlands are not just important at home – where they support rare and specialised wildlife, such as the tiny, carnivorous sundew plant – but also at an international level. Healthy peatlands can store more carbon than our coniferous forests, but damaged ones actually emit carbon into the atmosphere.

“If Scotland is to meet its climate change targets, we must protect and continue to restore our remaining peat bogs, to allow them to support native species and to effectively store carbon now and in the future.”