Agriculture and Peatlands 2025 Road Trip

Prepared by Dr Catherine O’Connell, Chair, Irish Peatland Society

Following on from previous years, the Peatland Road Trip 2025 organised by the Irish

Peatland Society was based on the theme of Agriculture and the involvement of local

people in peatland management. Thirty members participated in a three day programme.

They visited eight peatland sites where landowners are engaged in farming and managing

water levels within the peat soils for the benefit of biodiversity, habitat and environment.

The sites visited were located in Counties Galway and Mayo within the zone of Atlantic

Blanket Bog habitat in the west of Ireland.

The majority of the custodians of the blanket bog landscape in Ireland are farmers. Larger

stakeholders are also present including BnM (Bord na Móna), NPWS (National Parks and

Wildlife Service), Coillte and private investors. The goal of the peatland road trip was to

listen to the voice of the farmers who live and work in this landscape and derive a living

income from it.

We met with Colm Gavin (Plate 1) who farms a 100 acre hill farm in the Delphi valley with

a flock of Mayo Black-faced sheep. The farm is in a spectacular location with the towering

mountains of Mweelrea and Ben Gorm above the valley through which flows the best

freshwater pearl mussel (Margaritifera margaritifera) river in western Europe - the

Bundoragha River. The pearl mussel population here is self replacing which means

juveniles born in the river can live to adulthood. The waters in the river are pristine.

Farming in the valley is sensitive to maintaining river water quality which is impacted by

the condition of the blanket bog habitat dominating the catchment. This area receives up to

3m rainfall annually. In this regard Colm has taken measures to control water and

sediment discharge from the peat soil into the river by placing dams where they are

needed on his grazed blanket bog. In addition he has taken steps to control the invasive

Rhododendron ponticum. This shrub degrades the peatland habitat as it is allelopathic and

spreads rapidly on the open landscape and sheep do not eat it. Colm Gavin has been

involved in farming sympathetic to nature for almost 10 years. His experience has been

recognised and he is a “Farming for Nature Ambassador”. He raises awareness within the

farming community about the value of farming for wildlife which helps to bring other

farmers into the network. Sensitive farming and restoration measures of farmed peatlands

are subsidised through ACRES - a results-based agri-environment scheme. This is a

significant departure from previous agri-enivironment schemes which was explained to us

by Mary McAndrew from ACRES West.

We met members of Dúlra (managed by Forum Connemara) - a team of local farmers who

have been trained to remove invasive Rhododendron ponticum from large tracts of blanket

bog habitat (Plate 2). The training programme is an initiative of Natura Communities under

the Wild Atlantic Nature LIFE IP project. Its success is that local people are given training

in the removal of Rhododendron and those skills will remain in the community when short

term projects have been completed. The work provides farmers with additional income and

the benefits are significant improvements in habitat quality and sheep grazing habitat. The

Dúlra team provided a demonstration of the removal of Rhododendron from the blanket

bog at Creegha in Co. Galway.

At Fernwood Farm in Galway we saw additional measures being undertaken by the farm

owner Simon Ashe and his farm manager Stephen Joyce including turf/peat bank

reprofiling, drain blocking using timber and coir dams and bare peat surface stabilisationusing coir geotextile mesh. This blanket bog farm was being grazed by Dexter cattle (Plate3).

Aside from meeting farmers directly, members of the Society visited two projects to

discuss how restoration measures and plans are funded. Through the mediation of the

Wild Atlantic Nature LIFE IP project, funding was acquired to allow both projects to

progress. The first site was at Croaghaun, south of Bangor Erris in Co. Mayo. Here an

entrepreneur (Joe Devine of Merlin Rock) invested in a former peat extraction site of

750ha. A hydrological restoration plan was drawn up by RPS and the works of blocking

350km of drains with 15,700 peat dams was undertaken by BnM as a contractor. Private

funds from the landowner and from NABU (Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union)

were used to advance this project. By raising the water level in the peat to within 10cm of

the bog surface through drain blocking, carbon emissions have been reduced. The

resulting carbon credits can be sold (Plate 4).

With micro-level funding from a philanthropic charity - the Burren Beo Trust - farmers at

Urlaur Bog in East Mayo were able to get a nature plan drawn up for their 4ha lowland

cutaway bog. Cowberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) - a plant normally found in upland habitats

in Ireland was discovered at this site during the survey. Through the “Hare’s Corner”

(https://theharescorner.ie/) Scheme an expert visited the site and documented the habitats

and species present and drew up a plan for the landowners to help them manage and

enhance the biodiversity of their site going forward. The scheme applies to sites that are

not conservation designated.

Further Reading

Blanket Bog Restoration Toolkit: see https://www.wildatlanticnature.ie/wp-content/uploads/

2024/12/Blanket-bog-restoration-toolkit.pdf

Thank You

The Irish Peatland Society are grateful to the sponsors of the Peatland Road Trip 2025 -

Bord na Móna, National Parks and Wildlife Service and Tetra Tech (RPS).

We also acknowledge the presenters we met at each site and thank them for their lively

and informative discussions, demonstrations and hospitality. These were Conor Ryan,

Dermot Flaherty, Stephen Joyce, John Derwin, Tony McNally, Mark McCorry, Colm Gavin,

Mary McAndrew and Kathy Rowland. We are also grateful to our advisors: Derek

McLoughlin, Eoin McGreal and Sinéad Grimes.