#peat bogs

B O G P L A N T S

I love this place so much, so many pretty plants and animals!!

cotton-grass, leatherleaf, ferns, tamarack trees and sphagnum moss as far as the eye can see!!

Chickadees, grackles, sparrows of all types, red-wing black birds, ducks, mourning doves even sandhill cranes and american bitterns!! and literally so many other birds.

bumblebees, chipmunks, squirrels and rabbits!! And ofc special mention to our wetland heroes.. BEAVERS!!

Virginia’s Great Dismal Swamp, once a thriving wetland, is now being revived as an essential carbon sink to help combat climate change. Peatlands, like those in the swamp, cover only 3 percent of the Earth’s surface but store twice as much carbon as all the world’s forests combined - which cover 30 percent of global land area. By restoring these unique ecosystems, researchers and conservationists aim to reverse centuries of damage caused by human activity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Peat is a spongy layer of partially decomposed plant material found in waterlogged, acidic environments like the Great Dismal Swamp. This natural carbon storage system has been severely degraded over time.

Since 2012, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and conservation groups like The Nature Conservancy have been rewetting parts of the swamp to protect and rebuild its peat layers. This involves constructing dams and plugging drainage ditches to retain water, which slows peat decay and allows new organic material to accumulate.

Restoration efforts have already rehydrated 60,000 acres of the swamp. Over the next few years, The Nature Conservancy plans to restore an additional 33,000 acres and protect 10,500 acres in Virginia and North Carolina. These projects are funded by over $200 million from the Inflation Reduction Act.

The impact of Virginia’s peatlands will be environmentally significant: restoring them could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of removing up to 1.4 million cars from the road each year.

The secondary benefit is that wetlands like these are home to a diverse range of species, many of which are adapted to the unique, waterlogged environment. Restoring their habitat will enable both plants and wildlife to thrive once more.

Mike Waddington, a peat researcher at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, says: “When we think about storing carbon in ecosystems, it’s almost always about planting trees. There’s often tremendous pressure to plant trees in drained peatlands," he said, "but that’s the wrong choice given the carbon-storing ability of an intact bog." Adding: “In a way it’s the low-hanging fruit.”

A) Learn more about bogs and plants/wildlife living there

B) Get involved in some way in trying to preserve said bogs, especially ones local to said person

Would you have any advice/information to offer them?

BOY DO I!!

Tl;dr - you can protect bogs using knowledge and methods acquired from other types of organising. For knowledge, there is probably an organisation of nerdy old people you can join. They will be delighted to have you. If a particular plant/species takes your interest, research it until you're satisfied. Don't be afraid of academic articles.

Well first off i'm delighted that you're taking an interest! Over 85% of wetlands have been destroyed since the industrial revolution. 35% of this destruction has occurred since 1970 and the rate is accelerating.

GENERAL ADVICE

If there's a topic u know interests you, research the hell out of it. It is your key. You'll discover other stuff that interests you as you go, and its all connected, so start by getting a real concrete knowledge of what interested you in the first place.

Look up "[your continent/country/county] peatland talk" on YouTube and see if u can find some lectures! Then, look into the organisation running those talks. Email them, they may have reports about your local bog, or be able to point you towards people who can tell you more. Mention "i'm particularly interested in dragonflies/carnivorous plants/sphagnum mosses/ground nesting birds, if you have information about that."

If u don't get a response, email again. Or message them on Facebook. Usually these organisations are like 3 people, and they might have lost the email password lol. This stuff is fractal, so even if you can't find resources about, say, the peatlands of Longford, you will be able to find resources about the Irish Midlands; failing that, Ireland; failing that, western Europe. If you can't find public talks/articles, you might have to dive into the scientific literature. Read the most recent research. Write down words you don't understand and look up the definitions. Look at the articles frequently cited by the articles you read. Take it slow. Discuss them with a friend if you can, and let them ask you questions - they will help you uncover gaps in your knowledge.

World Wetland Day is an international campaign about protecting wetlands. If you look into who is posting about it in your country, it's a good place to start.

Oh, and try get better at walking/existing in bogs. Hiking friends can probably help with this. Buy some DEET-free insect repellent. Good leather boots are waterproof if u maintain them well. Gaitors and waterproof overtrousers are your friends.

PROTECTING IT

PROTECTING the bog is a political issue.

General organising advice is useful no matter what you are organising around. Learn about direct action. Learn about ecological movements in your country, but also about national and international LGBT+ rights movements, tenants rights movements, minority ethnic rights movements etc. Get involved if you can. You'll learn what works in your circumstances, and what does not apply.

Learn your own limits too - what are you happy to give? What can you force yourself to give, at a push? What can't you give? Just because something is important doesn't mean you have to do it. No need to knock yourself out of shape to manage social media accounts if there's someone else who is better at it and happy to do it. Its good to develop your skills, but giving other people a chance to participate is also a skill.

The antifracking movent in Ireland is a great case study of how to protect your local ecosystems. They managed to get fracking completely banned in ROI, and ban the importing of fracked gas (though that fight is ongoing, I won't get into it). I duckduckgo'd "antifracking campaign Ireland" and found pages and pages of useful articles. Take your pick!

SPECIFIC ADVICE:

In Ireland: Community Wetland Forum is a charity whose whole deal is connecting communities to the bogs they live near. https://communitywetlandsforum.ie/resources/ They have resources about bogs AND about EU and national policy designed to protect bogs.

Ireland or the UK: the BSBI. They are full of knowledge. They run field trips a several times a year to various habitats. There's one in Longford on 19/07/25 on a cutover bog. This will be a great chance to learn about the species that live on even quite damaged bogs. https://bsbi.org/events/corlea-co-longford-2

I recommend reaching out to your local BSBI vice county recorder, who will likely be a strange and enthusiastic old plant nerd who will be delighted to bring you to your local bog. The BSBI also publishes many many many articles. Like all the time. They probably have an article about your local bogs, even if its from 1893. BSBI membership is like 35€ a year, if you can afford it. If you can't……message me. I am willing to share some PDFs.

In Scotland, the BSBI is currently (?) running a survey of plants on the summit of mountains, so now is a great time to reach out to them saying you're interested in learning about blanket bog plants! In Ireland, this is the first year of the upland plant survey. Likewise, this means blanket bog plants are a focus rn.

I like the IPCC (Irish Peatland Conservation Council) less well, because they are less ambitious about conservation than I'd like, and at times they pursue methods that I think are ineffective or counterproductive. However, they do have useful resources https://www.ipcc.ie/discover-and-learn/

And uhmmmmmmmm have fun! Its beautiful out there and we are so so so lucky to be in a position to enjoy and protect our local wetlands ♥ ask me follow up qs any time!