Last Saturday we spent another great day out at Blairbeich Bog - this time building plastic dams. We managed a new record of 16 dams! in just one day. However before there are suspicions of bionic & superhuman volunteers we must admit there were a few factors playing in our favour...the peat was soft and we encountered very few roots, which means the dams went in smoothly.
Also, the dams were in general constructed of short (1-1.5m) sections of plastic piling, as we were blocking small, parallel ditches that all lead into one main ditch. It was a great effort and we even finished early. Throughout the day, parts of the team went to complete the peat depth survey of the SSSI area, which means we now have a full data set of peat depths for Blairbeich - which is also great news.
We were lucky with the weather and apart from a strong wind and the occasional small drops we also saw some sunshine. However the old pair of jeans we use for building the dams was not quite so lucky and looks much worse for wear - or could this be fashionable Bog design? We also came across some lovely wildlife, including a Palmate newt and a couple of Foxmoth caterpillars.
Thank you to everyone who took part, for their brilliant effort in building these first dams on Blairbeich and completing the peat depth survey. We will return to Blairbeich this coming Saturday - 25th October , maybe see you there...