In the 1980s, commercial trees were planted in parts of Scotland’s 9,000-year-old peatlands; decades later, conservationists are clearing them to protect wildlife and keep the carbon they store underground
Commercial trees were planted in parts of Scotland’s 9,000-year-old peatlands in the 1980s; decades later, conservationists are clearing them to protect wildlife and keep the carbon they store underground.The large-scale project is centered on the Flow Country, a wetland area of ​​more than 400,000 hectares in Caithness and Sutherland in northern Scotland. In July 2024, UNESCO named the area a World Heritage Site, alongside natural treasures such as the Great Barrier Reef and the Grand Canyon. It became the first peatland in the world to be granted this special status. King Charles III visited the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) Forsnade Falls Reserve and unveiled a special plaque to mark the event.Despite its global fame today, much of this ancient landscape was nearly destroyed forty years ago. In the 1980s, tax regulations and government subsidies encouraged forestry companies to drain wetlands, build deer fences, build roads and plant long rows of commercial trees.
Destruction of wild habitats
The rapid growth of these tree farms harms fragile marshes. Trees suck water from the muddy ground, causing the deep peat soil to dry out and break down.The loss of open land threatens native birds, which need wide, treeless spaces to nest. The area lost about 900 pairs of golden plover, nearly 800 pairs of dunlins and 130 pairs of greenshanks before government action was taken to stop planting. The area is also an important home for hen harriers, insectivorous sundews, common Scotch harriers and red-throated loons, which lay their eggs near small marshy pools.
A Common Greenshank stood at the edge of the pool.
Pressure from The Nature Conservancy, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and other green groups eventually forced the government to change its plans. In January 1988, the then Scottish Secretary of State, Malcolm Rifkind, announced that the Government would protect more than 140,000 hectares of peatland as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Later that year, then chancellor Nigel Lawson ended the tax breaks and grants that had made peat tree planting profitable.
Reversal of Forsnard flow losses
The real clean-up began in 1994, when the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) purchased the Forsinard Estate in the middle of Flow Country through donations from its members. Today, RSPB Forsinard Flows is the UK’s largest nature reserve managed by the charity.The conservation group used two major grants from the EU Life Nature Fund to test methods of felling commercial trees, plugging gutters and re-soaking the ground. The main goal is to restore thousands of hectares of cleared land to healthy, functioning marshland.The choice to cut down trees does more than just help wildlife. Peatlands are often called the lungs of the earth because they absorb and trap carbon. The soils of the catchment countries alone contain around 400 million tonnes of carbon, which is more carbon than all the forests and woods of the UK combined. As the peat dries, the trapped carbon leaks back into the air as a heat-trapping gas.
Government support and broader goals
Scotland’s peatlands cover more than 2 million hectares, accounting for 25% of the country’s land area and more than 60% of all peatlands in the UK.To help restore the land, the Scottish Government has committed £250 million over ten years to restore 250,000 hectares of damaged peatland by 2030 through the Peatlands Action Plan. Official records show that more than 75,000 hectares of land have been rehabilitated so far, with a record 10,360 hectares completed in the 2023-24 financial year.Scotland’s peatland policy focuses on three main steps: protecting healthy sites, caring for arable land and restoring damaged areas. New science shows that other practical measures, such as preventing overgrazing by farm animals and deer, re-moistening farm soils and changing the use of grassy peatlands, can further reduce gas emissions.
Bringing communities into the swamp
Restoring remote peatlands means working in harsh conditions, with cold weather and wet mud making field tasks difficult. To gain public and political support, conservation groups built better visitor attractions at Fossinade Stream.The reserve now features a lookout tower, allowing visitors to enjoy the open landscape. The new investment adds modern labs and housing to the reserve, allowing scientists, researchers and volunteers to live on the reserve while studying how healthy marshes capture carbon and bring back rare birds.As well as storing carbon and creating homes for wildlife, the Scottish Government sees peatland restoration as a way to create green jobs. A long-term cleanup is bringing rural jobs to northern Scotland, helping local hotels and cafes and building green tourism.
