a day ago
On Ireland's peat bogs: climate action clashes with tradition
Doreen King, the project manager of Bord na Móna's peatlands climate action scheme, and Mark McCorry, ecology manager, walk past a carbon flux monitor, in Ballynahown. Rewetting bogs 'is all about reducing the carbon emissions from the bare peatlands', says King
King holds bog grass in a restored bogland, in Ballynahown. Bog grass, which holds in carbon, is a critical flora of peatlands
A drone view shows the scars on the landscape of peat harvesting in Clonbullogue. Bord na Móna has been charged with trying to restore damaged bogs to curb the carbon emissions and allow natural ecosystems to restore themselves, eventually turning them back into carbon sinks
A drone's view shows a stage of the rewetting process at Ballaghurt Bog where the grids are flooded with water to seal in the carbon emissions, near Clongawny
View of a marked control square, set out before recording a carbon emission measurement at Ballycon Bog, in Mount Lucas. Degraded peatlands in Ireland emit the equivalent of 21.6m metric tons of CO2 each year, according to the 2022 UN report
Johny Gorry uses a digging machine to cut away chunks of peat to put through a turf installation machine, in Clonbullogue. Contractors dig turf on behalf of plot owners, who then stack turf sods to dry and transport home to burn over the winter
John Smyth, 69, squeezes freshly cut turf before stacking it up for drying over the summer months, in Mount Lucas. Smyth, like many households, uses turf to heat and fuel his house. A single harvest can heat a home for a year for less than €1,000 without the stress of energy bills
Bog cotton, or common cottonsedge in Clonydonnin Bog, a cutaway bog, in Ballynahown. Ireland's bogs were formed over thousands of years as decaying plants formed a thick layer of peat in wetland areas
As the peat stacking process starts in Clonbullogue, freshly cut turf is stacked into a pyramid shape, known locally as a foot, to help with the drying process. Wooden posts mark where each person's plot of turf begins
Willie Flynn (left), 74, and Michael Morrissey (right), 72, load dried turf cut from a patch they rented for the year to bring home to use for heating, in Clonbullogue. The turf is cut into sods by a tractor and is then 'footed' – stacked by hand to dry over several weeks - before being transported home for fuel
John Smyth, 69, drinks a cup of tea as he looks out of the window of his house at sunset, in Mount Lucas. Smyth heats his home with peat turf harvested from a bog. 'I can never see the day that we won't need turf,' he says. 'I'm going to keep it going for as long as I can, as long as turf is available'
A drone's view shows turf from Derryrush bog left out to dry after being harvested from the blanket bog.
The shadow of the now late Jim Bracken, then 92, seen in the hearth of the outdoor living room of his friend, Willie Pilkington, 79, as they catch up over a cup tea made on a turf fire. About 68,000 households in Ireland were still dependent on turf for home heating in 2022, down from 90,000 in 2011, according to census data
Smyth chops up firewood from a tree that fell after Storm Éowyn, in Mount Lucas. Ireland has introduced strict rules on the burning of solid fuels. Wood must be dried so it has a moisture content of less than 25%.
Harry Kelly, a carbon technician with Bord na Móna, takes a photo on a makeshift boardwalk among the reeds at Ballycon Bog, in Mount Lucas. Bord na Móna permanently ceased harvesting peat on its lands in 2021 and now focuses on renewable energy, recycling, peatland restoration
A drone's view shows the rehabilitated Ballycon Bog, some 20 years after rewetting, in Mount Lucas. High rainfall and poor drainage causes blanket bogs to develop over hundreds of years on large expanses of land, supporting rich biodiversity, including rare plants and vulnerable species
A person stands on top of Diamond Hill in the Connemara national park, which is surrounded by a protected blanket bog found in lowlands of mountainous regions with a rainy climate, in Letterfrack
Smyth stacks freshly cut turf into a pyramid shape, or foot, which helps the peat dry over the summer months, in Clonbullogue
Bracken and Smyth drink tea made using peat turf, in Rhode. Open turf fires have long lent a unique peaty smell to homes and pubs across rural Ireland
Doreen King holds sphagnum moss in a restored bogland, in Ballynahown. Raised bogs need certain types of mosses, collectively known as sphagnum, to grow in order for peat to form, according to Bord na Móna
A drone's view shows the early stages of the rewetting process at Ballaghurt Bog, near Clongawny. Bord na Móna has been charged with trying to 'rewet' the bogs to curb the carbon emissions, allowing natural ecosystems to restore themselves, eventually turning them back into carbon sinks
A drone's view shows secondary school students stacking freshly cut turf on a raised bog to help the peat dry over the summer months, in Clonbullogue
Mark McCorry, an ecology manager with Bord na Móna, searches for a family of egrets that have begun nesting in the rehabilitated cutaway Boora Bog, near Glen Lower. 'In the longer term, we will see more and more of those bogs, you know, switching back to sinks for carbon,' McCorry says
