Future of bogs in our hands

The window of my study looks out over a midland raised bog.

Thirty years ago the view was a fairly natural one. On part of the bog, accessed by a gravel road, there were face banks where local people saved turf. The bulk of the bog is owned by Bord na Móna and back then they had not started to work it, although they had cut drains to lower the water table. Most of the original vegetation was still intact. The very last of the lowland red grouse lived in it and the very last of the local grey partridges lived along its fringes. In late spring you could hear the eerie sound of drumming snipe.

Today it’s rather different. It’s been transformed into something resembling a huge open-cast mine. The green has turned to brown, there’s a narrow gauge railway and long ridges of milled peat, covered in plastic sheeting that rattles in the wind. There are no more grouse or partridges.