New video highlights top-quality peatland restoration at Glen Dye Moor
Scottish Woodlands features in a new video showcasing top-quality peatland restoration work being carried out on a former Scottish grouse moor.
The short film, made by NatureScot, focuses on the restoration of degraded peatland on the 6,300-hectare Glen Dye Moor in Aberdeenshire - and highlights the economic, environmental and biodiversity benefits the work is delivering.
Around 1,800 hectares of peatland is being restored by Peatland ACTION, working with specialist contractors McGowan Environmental Engineering Ltd - while around 3,000 hectares of woodland creation is also planned for the site, between Banchory and Laurencekirk.
Scottish Woodlands is working with partners to deliver the woodland creation at Glen Dye Moor, while supporting the peatland restoration as part of a holistic approach to the large site.
Eddie Addis, Scottish Woodlands Director for North Scotland, says in the video: “The woodland creation and peatland restoration definitely complement each other. They're both trying to achieve the same things - habitat restoration and carbon sequestration - and doing one without the other would be like trying to deliver a jigsaw with pieces missing.”
Mr Addis goes on to highlight the importance of the work at Glen Dye to local employment, including Scottish Woodlands Ltd, which has an office in Banchory.
James Macpherson-Fletcher, Forest Manager at Scottish Woodlands, also features in the video. He says: “Glen Dye Moor and many estates in the area have traditionally been used for sporting activities - grouse moor management or producing quality sporting stags.”
Tom Croy, Investment Director at Par Equity (now part of PXN Group) says his company acquired the site on behalf of Aviva Investors in 2021, adding: “We saw this as a landscape scale, natural capital opportunity, and as a result, we're looking forward to developing significant afforestation and are also in the process of significant peatland restoration.”
Sam Hesling, Contracts Manager for McGowan Environmental Engineering, says some of the peatland at Glen Dye is "spectacularly degraded”. He describes how “the full palette of peatland restoration techniques” are being used at Glen Dye, to restore the peatland to good health and deliver multiple benefits.
Deborah Land, Project Manager for Peatland ACTION, says: “Blanket bogs sit at the top of the [Glen Dye] catchment. If they're degraded, when you get periods of high rainfall, they will send particular carbon and silt into the rivers. Also, the lack of vegetation means you get very high peak flows, and this can cause flooding downstream. So trying to re-wet the peatlands and establish vegetation is good for biodiversity, and can also slow the flow.”
Erin Stoll, Peatland Project Manager at Scottish Woodlands Ltd, said: “It’s great to see the brilliant work going on to restore peatlands at Glen Dye featured in this film. As Sam Hesling says, the full palette of techniques is being used and we are starting to see excellent results.”
Watch the film here