What is a Blanket Bog? - Cuilcagh Mountain Co Fermanagh скачать в хорошем качестве

What is a Blanket Bog? - Cuilcagh Mountain Co Fermanagh

We were down in Fermanagh last week for a mini break. We stayed at the wonderful l Lough Erne Resort hotel. On the second day we planned and set out for the spectacular 'Stairway to Heaven' Cuilcagh Mountain Boardwalk. Naturally I filmed our climb. On the way up we passed by and over the beautiful pink shades of the blanket bog that the boardwalk was built to protect from hill walking erosion. A huge noticeboard offers plenty of information on the this special rare bog. The main noticeboard, beside the track, tells us that this particular bog with its white cotton grass is one of the most intact in Western Europe! Peat cutting stopped in this area in the 1990s and work was started in bringing about the restoration of the bog. a boardwalk was built to give rangers access to work on building 2500 small dams to block 17 miles of drains in order to bring water levels back to their natural level. As this tiring difficult work was done by hand it took 13 years to complete. Sheep numbers were also cut to allow damaged areas to recover and growth to happen. This 500m long mini boardwalk section under the mountain allows access for the interested visitor to get right to the hub of this conservation work as see the bog as it was meant to be. Bare ground has been reinstated to bogland and it is now buzzing with wildlife. What is a blanket bog? Blanket bog is a layer of peat spread out like a blanket over the mountain side. It is about 2-3 me deep and it depend on a high volume of rainfall to support its particular plants insects and animals that have successfully adapted to life in this waterlogged environment. Blanket bogs formed thousands of years ago when poor drainage and high rainfall combined to prevent vegetation from totally decaying, causing it to build up as peat. bogs like this hold an enormous amount of carbon preventing it from being released into the atmosphere so they are very important in combating global warming. Less than 2 % if the earth's surface are blanket bog. They are increasingly under threat from the unscrupulous or the ignorant.