Peatland restoration; RSPB Loch Gruinart, Islay

Descriptions

Scotland’s peatlands represent one of the most significant carbon stores, but large areas are degraded often as result of historic patterns of land management. Degraded peatlands can release carbon thus contributing to the enhanced greenhouse effect. The Scottish Government has decided that peatlands, in degraded condition, should be restored where possible to help mitigate the impacts of future climate change. With the aim of restoring areas of degraded peatland, Peatland ACTION was established in 2012. Funded by the Scottish Government and managed through Nature Scot and four other major delivery organisations. Peatland ACTION has helped to put more than 25,000ha of impacted peatland on the road to recovery to date. Restoration work is funded under the assumption that treatment work has a net positive effect on the carbon balance of a site (whether slowing losses or promoting gains). This project will be administered by RSPB Scotland and funded by Scottish Government and/or private funders to reduce carbon released into the atmosphere by helping to restore degraded peatlands. Our site, RSPB Gruinart phase one,is comprised of extensive areas of actively eroding peat hags, gullies, man-made drains and former peat cuttings. The site boundary for the restoration area is approximately 250 Ha in size. It is expected that the Contractor will work to restore all mapped erosion features in this area using a combination of machine work and hand labour. The work will be procured on a treatment basis which includes machine days, hand labour days and the supply of materials. A range of techniques will be employed to treat the features in this area, these are detailed below within the tender specification. It is anticipated that machine work will be the preference, although there are areas that require hand work for the instillation dams. Required materials will be moved into the area with a suitable ATV such as an Argo, Marooker, Softtrack or Hagglund. We have chosen a variety of restoration techniques that are suitable for this site and some innovation may be required in some areas due to access issues and severity of erosion. The techniques expected to be used on the project are set out in the below specification.