Reclaiming bog

[mac]

Going this very interesting video on you tube of Basil Baird and his brothers bought an estate in Sutherland and set about reclaiming a bog to grow grass and make pellets. Can only imagine the outcry if this was tried today. I think they sold
It to fountain forestry and was planted in
Sitka spruce now the rspb have most of the land and are trying to reinstate it to what it was before.

 

[Macsky]

Absolutely fascinating, thanks for sharing.

 

[john432]

Yes fascinating, wonder how many years did they do that for. Seems too labour intensive by today's standards, plus fuel costs,and exceptionally wet weather would kill it!

 

[mac]

Yes fascinating, wonder how many years did they do that for. Seems too labour intensive by today's standards, plus fuel costs,and exceptionally wet weather would kill it!

If you see how remote the place is no wonder it didn’t work it was sold I think mid 80’s to fountain forestry

 

[Dave6170]

Thats very good. That tin shed is still there isn't it?

 

[Zebbedee]

Great film good to see

 

[Exfarmer]

There was a family from Leicestershire who went up to Scotland in the 70's with the same idea, they were drainage contractors so had the tools. I knew a cousin of theirs well once, but lost touch many years past

 

[Dave6170]

I went to Holland on a trip with college, we went to a dairy on peat soil. They had a robot parlour on tracks out in the field. When we jumped on the ground it shook all around us. The farmer took his soil corer thingy and when he broke the turf the 5 foot long handle sunk straight down!

 

[mac]

Yes @Dave6170 shed still there most off the land is now trees. Or being turned back into a bog by RSPB but that’s another mess sorry story in itself.

 

[west coast angus]

brilliant!! such a shame all that hard work was wasted by planting trees is there any of the reclaimed land still green?

 

[Secret Agronomist]

Latitude makes a big difference, its being returned to peat land now as carbon is the game now. Also a lot of trees never came to anything. There was a fair bit of hubris in the whole film. However thenimporved grassland didn't seem stupid, just the cost to get that far and how it was being utilised was a bit daft. But this is through the prism of the 21st century and expensive energy.

 

[Dave6170]

brilliant!! such a shame all that hard work was wasted by planting trees is there any of the reclaimed land still green?

What is worse is that on some off it, the rspb just cut the trees and leave them lying to rot. They don't harvest them just leave to rot. Its disgraceful

 

[Macsky]

I wonder how much lime and slag it took to get the first cut of grass off? I bet if grazing had been the aim, the biodiversity would have been boosted ten fold over blanket bog.

 

[Lazy Eric]

That wouldn’t go down well these days, my father reclaimed a hundred acres or so in the late 70s , that was all peat.
Anything that was drained is still growing grass, but anything that wasn’t has all gone back to moor, but with more rushes...and it would do that no matter how much we limed and fed it.
To be fair moor needs leaving as moor.. it’s environmentally sound.

 

[Macsky]

Large areas of hill were reclaimed in the Uists with 10+t/ac of shell sand, which is fine if it’s on your door step, but without much maintenance dressings they are turning to rushes as well.

 

[C.J]

In about 1780 some relatives of mine , built embankments and drained the marsh , at A.G on the river Avon ,trebling the value of the land.

In 2011 the E.A let the water back in to create a salt marsh

 

[Andrew1983]

It is a fascinating video, everytime I ever go west or north I look at big expanses of land and think about what it would take to bring them into production.

There must be plenty other story’s of similar like this, did the duke of Sutherland not do something similar in the 1800s? I have an Inverness courier somewhere where an article talks about plans to reclaim a chunk of the Beauly firth!

In some ways I’d like to see a time when schemes like these were actually viable but we seem to be a long way from that currently.

My fathers farm had 175 acre of moor reclaimed to grass in the 1970s with fire and bulldozers don’t think there’s too much of it peat although there is some. Despite providing summer grazing for 140 cows and calves it ended up planted in the 1990s,Debeer diamonds owned the farm then and took the sub money then sold the farm. I hate trees!! Shelter belts yes but blocks of monoculture no thanks

 

[capfits]

Was up in Forsinard in the summer.
All I will say on that is you cannot beat nature as much as you may try.
Would have been better using the waste heat from Dounreay to grow pineapples.

They were not alone in their hubris at that time.

 

[Dave6170]

Theres bits over there you think could of been improved. You see it on the sides of the forestry roads, the peat isn't that deep on top of clay on top of gravel/rock. I wonder if deep ploughing like you see on YouTube could of brought the clay up?
Days of that are gone now unfortunately

 

[Macsky]

Theres bits over there you think could of been improved. You see it on the sides of the forestry roads, the peat isn't that deep on top of clay on top of gravel/rock. I wonder if deep ploughing like you see on YouTube could of brought the clay up?
Days of that are gone now unfortunately

I see plenty of ground like that here, mostly on banks cut by roads that shows just how shallow the peat is, I’ve often wondered the same.

I wonder how much more ground would have been improved if there had been more money in the area, I bet there’s not much of what is green today in these parts that wasn’t made that way by a lot of blood sweat and tears!