Donal Hickey: Rewetting can restore Ireland's natural peatlands

The peatlands are valuable carbon sinks and the habitat of threatened plants and animals

People jealously guard their ancient turbary rights which allow them to harvest their own fuel, despite concerns by environmentalists. Picture: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie

IF THE weather is kind in late April, there are people who begin to feel the magnetic draw of the bog. Now that fears of a ban on people cutting turf for burning in their own homes have lifted — for the present at least — the annual trek will shortly begin.

The traditional turf-cutting implement, the slean, has been more or less consigned to history and museums, as nearly all of the turf is now cut by machine. People jealously guard their ancient turbary rights which allow them to harvest their own fuel, despite concerns by environmentalists.