Over the last 20 years Langlands Moss on the edge of East Kilbride has seen a variety of dams installed to block its many drainage ditches. Gradually these ditches are filling up with sphagnum mosses and returning to their boggy origins. However some of the damming materials used in the early days are starting to fail. Plywood boards have become rotten, early plastic piling dams have become brittle in the sunlight and a few even melted when a small fire swept across the moss some years ago. Instead of using more plastic piling, could these ditches be re-blocked by simply using peat? The Bog Squad with help from The Friends of Langlands Moss went to find out.........
Firstly we needed to excavate a section of the ditch to remove all the unconsolidated peaty material that has built up over the last few decades. We also began to excavate a borrow pit nearby from which we were able to take consolidated peat. This 'good' peat has clay like properties when compressed and acts as a natural barrier to water movement. By digging deep and wide enough to reveal the old profile of the ditch we exposed the 'good' peat on the ditch sides and base to which our dam could be bedded into.
After much toil and graft by everyone we managed to build the dam up to the height of the moss itself,well above the ditch level. And we finished it off nicely by replacing the original mossy turves from the ditch so that the bare peat wasn't exposed to the elements. All that remained was to take all the ditch spoil over to refill the borrow pit...........which took quite a while!!
And as usual on our bog days out there were some mothy moments which included seeing the nationally scarce (and only recently discovered at Langlands Moss) Manchester Treble-bar. A huge thank you to all those who came along to help us including The Friends of Langlands Moss. Maybe see you next time........... |