Bogman wisdom makes an awful lot of sense

Donal Hickey on the value of our rapidly vanishing bogs.

A WISE man offered yours truly a bit of advice the other day. "If you've an acre of bog somewhere, mind it. It could be very valuable before you know it," he declared.

Elaborating, he pointed to the increase in oil prices, which could be start of huge upsurge in the cost of petrol and heating oil like we saw 30 years ago. Out of necessity, we might all become peat bog soldiers once again, he warned, though he forgot that large amounts of bogland have been planted in the last 20 years.

For several years now, country people with plenty of peatland close to their houses, have forsaken an annual ritual of going to the bog to cut and harvest turf, formerly such an important source of domestic energy.

Instead, they've installed oil-fired ranges and stoves. You'll find a few people here and there who still cut turf by slean in the old-fashioned way. But such folk are a vanishing species, for nearly all of the turf that's cut nowadays is by machine.

The fine weather of recent weeks was perfect for the bog, with a combination of sun and breeze creating ideal drying conditions When the turf is cut and spread out on the bank, you depend totally on natural forces to do the trick. In a wet year, saving the turf can be a back-breaking and disheartening experience.

There's also a degree of skill involved in drying turf knowing when to turn the sods, when to put them standing and when to draw out the turf before the rain comes and makes underfoot conditions very difficult. Knowledgeable bogmen always keep an ear to the weather forecast, but also rely on their own intuition to sense what nature has in store.

For them, anticipating the weather is just as important an art as it is to farmers. Many, in times past, closely observed the movements of the bog lark, a bird you don't see that much nowadays. The flight of this little bird is always a joy to watch.

If he soars straight up into the sky, almost to the point where you can't see him any more, chances are that the weather will be fine. But, if he just flies up a small bit and comes back down to earth quickly, you can be on the look out for rain.

Amateur met men in the bog always watch the clouds and the direction from which the wind is coming. Darkening clouds tell their own story, but a strengthening wind from the south west is feared most of all as it invariably brings in rain from the Atlantic. For a place that's so healthy and rich in nature, the bog has often wrongly maligned.

A teacher in school would say in a derogatory way, 'you can take the boy out of the bog, but you can't take the bog out of the boy.'

Thankfully, that pedagogue did not have science, or geography, among his subjects for he had no idea of the richness of the bog, or the characters you'd meet there. A day in the bog can be enlightening and normally quiet man, and women, can open their minds during discussions that shorten the day.

Whether it's caused by stimulation of the upland air, or being in close harmony with nature, debate on various topics, can sometimes reach surprisingly high levels in the bog. More people are now appreciating the bog and, last Friday, Environment Minister Martin Cullen launched an important wildlife area of fen habitat in County Waterford. Fenor Bog as a national nature reserve, jointly owned by the Irish Peatland Conservation Council (IPCC) and the Móin Fhionnúrach Development Association (MFDA), which bought the 32-acre site in 1999.

Both groups have worked closely to manage the fen as a wildlife reserve. A one-kilometre boardwalk made from recycled plastic has been constructed on the site and is due to be completed this summer. The boardwalk is elevated above the high water level of the fen to protect both the users of the boardwalk and the sensitive flora and fauna of the reserve. It was constructed by hand to ensure the sensitive site was not unduly disturbed.

The Queally and Curran families, who own farmland surrounding the fen, supported the project and agreed that their land immediately adjoining the fen should be included in the reserve in order to act as a buffer between the fen and the impacts of any surrounding land use. Fenor Bog is three miles from Tramore, on the coast road from Tramore to Dungarvan. For more information on Fenor Nature Reserve, visit www.ipcc.ie