Have you ever wondered how greenhouse gasses (GHG) are monitored?

The GHG monitoring work for the project is done in collaboration with the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) and involves us as a team going out on site several times a month to collect data, which is then sent to UKCEH for analysis.

Greenhouse gas monitoring is an important and intricate part of the monitoring work, and it helps us to measure how much carbon and methane is stored or released in the peatlands that we are restoring (see the equipment we use above).

Project Assistant Joanna Kowalska takes part in this work and explains how its done in her latest blog that you can read here.

Just look at what we found on our otter camera traps on Cors Caron! 

Otters (Lutra lutra) are one of the many rare and protected species that are present at Cors Caron Special Area of Conservation(SAC), and the Afon Teifi SAC that runs through the reserve.

Although otters will choose to create dens and raise young close to the River Teifi, the raised bog habitats at Cors Caron provide an important source of food for otters, such as insects, amphibians and reptiles.

Our LIFE staff regularly see signs of otter activity all over the reserve, such as well trodden otter paths with footprint, otter droppings or spraints (often strong smelling and used to mark territories) and feeding remains.

We are surveying and monitoring otter activity at Cors Caron to ensure that our LIFE project works don’t disturb any important breeding sites. This is being done through a combination of surveying the areas we intend to undertake works on in detail for otter presence, and then monitoring activity at certain hot spots by using camera traps (see pic of camera being installed below).

The cameras will continue to be checked regularly throughout the summer and autumn to help us build up a clear picture of otter presence on site. Once we understand how otters are using these areas, we will have a better idea of how to design and manage our work to ensure as little disturbance as possible.

Thank you to Geoff Liles from The Otter Consultancy for all his help as part of the project.

The Marches Mosses Bog LIFE project aims to restore Britain’s third-largest lowland raised bog within the Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses and Wem Moss National Nature Reserves (NNRs) near Whitchurch, Shropshire and Wrexham in Wales.

The project is led by Natural England working in partnership with Natural Resources Wales and the Shropshire Wildlife Trust. The multi-million-pound five-year project is supported by an EU LIFE grant.

Mike Crawshaw is the Engagement Officer for the project and in this blog he explains how protecting a 10,000-year-old habitat involves the removal of trees, and how this is done with minimal impact.

Image below credit: S Barlow June 2020

The team has been doing work on some of our other sites in the project. In February this year we worked with contractors at #RhosGoch near Builth to enhance a ditch along some of its length (see blue line in the below image).

The total length of ditch cleared was around 330m with the average excavation depth being approx. 500mm with it being graded in a south / west direction. The purpose behind this work is to clear the ditch and create a steady continuous downhill gradient, to ensure gentle water flow. This is to carry away nutrient rich water that is washing off the neighbouring farmland and preventing the ditch from overflowing on to the bog.

Both the landowner and the project felt this was the best solution, without negatively impacting the water table of the bog, which is sometimes the case with drainage ditches.

Material from the ditch has been placed on the raised bog side, and this has been graded and profiled to create a gentle bank approx. 15cm high. (see above image) This bank will reduce overflow, reduce peat material used from drying out, and help vegetation to establish.

We hope water levels in the ditch will stay at 2 meters and keep the natural water levels on the bog at between 5-10cm of the bog surface.