Country diary: Pine martens, dragonflies ? this scarred peat bog is healing | Sean Wood

Abbeyleix Bog, County Laois, Ireland: I was sceptical about whether this valuable but struggling habitat would be restored in my lifetime. I'm delighted to be proved wrongThe Irish peat extraction agency Bord na Móna once explained to me: "We are a development agency, not a conservation organisation." I had bemoaned the destruction of bogland ecosystems across the country through the use of huge extraction machinery and the indiscriminate removal of woodlands and ground cover.Much of the degraded peat was used for gardens and peat briquettes. Forestry, intensified agriculture and reclamation had further reduced the area of bog, while latterly, scientists are warning that climate change could further deplete these vast carbon sinks. Continue reading...