This year the Bog Squad has been working in Airdrie to protect a small remnant bog in the heart of Brownsburn Community Nature Park. Despite it's relatively small size the bog holds peat deposits that are over 6m deep! The surface of the bog has been damaged by drainage ditches being dug across it and repeated fires. This has left the bog looking rather dry and subsceptible to scrub invasion. Typical bog vegetation is holding on though with some lovely sphagnums and cottongrasses to be seen.
The Bog Squad's task was to reduce water loss through the old drainage ditches by installing ditch-blocking dams and to remove any invasive scrub. During our four visits to carry out the work we were lucky to be blessed with some great weather. Thanks to some hard graft by volunteers we were able to successfully install 20 dams and remov all the invasive scrub. And with all the recent rain, there was evidence that the dams were working well with new small pools forming.
Hopefully our work here will help make the site wetter in the long-term and reduce the fire-risk across the site. As ever many thanks to all those volunteers who helped with our work at Brownsburn and to North Lanarkshire Council and the local community group for their support and help.