We are delighted to announce that restoration work has started on some sites again this autumn and winter.

Contractors have arrived at Cors Fochno raised bog near Aberystwyth (see image left) and will start on restoration work namely creating low level banks of peat (or bunds as we also like to call them).

You might also see the wetland harvester machine out on Cors Fochno over the next few weeks too (see below image). It will be working hard to cut back the dense Molinia grass that can be found on areas of the site.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for regular updates about the work.

We've created a video showing some of the restoration methods that we have done on the North East bog at Cors Caron National Nature Reserve (NNR).

The low level banks of peat can be seen to hold back the water that has been escaping off the bog dome.

Mowing the Molinia grass is also showing positive signs with bog plants such as cotton grass, sundews and bog asphodel making a come back on the site.

Watch the video by clicking on this link

In the last bulletin we shared a blog with you about a sister project - the Marches Mosses Bog LIFE.

In 1991 Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses (collectively know as The Marches Mosses) were designated as a National Nature Reserve.

Prior to this, the peatlands located south west of Whitchurch, were drained, reduced in size and damaged by commercial peat cutting.

For the last 30 years, the NNR has been cared for by Natural England (previously English Nature), who, under the guidance of Reserve Manager Dr Joan Daniels have worked to restore the peatland to its former condition.  

Read more about the project and how they are celebrating this milestone by visiting their website here.

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

We will be visiting the project this year to learn about their restoration methods, what's been successful and what's been challenging for them as a project. We'll share this info with you in the next bulletin.

Marking out the low elevation contour bunds for this year’s autumn / winter restoration work is underway.

The team have been out placing bamboo canes every 20 meters on the West Bog on #CorsCaron to mark out the white lines you can see in the map (left). These white contour lines show where the bunds will be installed.

To plan this work we use LIDAR imagery to extract accurate surface level contours (see below image).

The blue features on the map being at the lowest elevation, rising up to red being the highest. 

Thank you to everyone who sent in their photos from the picture posts on #CorsCaron and #Corsfochno to us over the last few years.

We have recently edited the pics together (over 300 in all!) and have created these fantastic citizen science videos helping us to monitor the sites and their changing landscapes over the seasons.

Not much restoration work has taken place as yet but fingers crossed this will be a bit more obvious this coming autumn / winter.

Thank you again to everyone who has sent in their picture, we are very grateful to you and please continue to send them in and we’ll share another time-lapse video with you around the same time next year.

Watch the video which shows all the picture post images on this link.

Due to Covid19 restrictions continuing over the summer months, we again celebrated International Bog Day virtually this year.

We created a video and shared it online to showcase Cors Caron National Nature Reserve.

The aim of the video was to help raise awareness of raised bogs and how they are created, and to also explain how important they are in the fight against climate change and why we're restoring them. Watch our video here.

How does rediscovering a rare bog moss happen?

Read our blog to find out more about identifying bog mosses and what this means for our project sites.

Thank you to Dave Reed for writing this and for all your hard work supporting our project.

Read the blog here.