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Lodge Bog South West, Co. Kildare

• County: Kildare
• Area: 3.5 hectares
• Bogland Type: raised bog
• Year Acquired by IPCC: 2009
• Grid Reference: N 708250
• How to get there: Lodge Bog is 5km from Allenwood and 12km from Rathangan. The site is located along the R414 at a dangerous bend in the road adjacent to Lodge Bog.

  The IPCC can accept no liability for injury to persons visiting the site.

Lodge Bog South West Purchase
and Restoration Project 2009

Your Help is Needed to Secure the Survival of Lodge Bog South West

From Cillian Breathnach, Field worker, Lodge Bog South West.

Overlooking Lodge Bog South West, Co. Kildare. Luxurious heather growth and lichen. © Cillian Breathnach

An important development in the future of Lodge Bog is taking place in 2009 and the IPCC need your help. The IPCC have been presented with the opportunity to buy 9.5 acres of bog adjoining Lodge Bog. It is not simply a case of enlarging the IPCC's reserve, the long-term survival of Lodge Bog would be greatly enhanced if this area were to be brought under the IPCC's protection. It all comes down to one thing control of drainage.

Over the summer and autumn of 2008, IPCC staff and volunteers were busy at work carrying out restoration work on Lodge Bog. This work involved everything from blocking drains, to clearing areas of birch encroachment and mapping out the species distributions.

Arial photograph showing current area owned by the IPCC and the extension to be purchased in 2009 and called Lodge Bog South West. © Google Earth

During this work a major threat to the survival of Lodge Bog was identified. A drain running along the south-western border still remains to be blocked, however the IPCC have been powerless to alter the drain due to ownership issues. The problem encountered until now is that the boundary line between the IPCC's property and the property of the neighbouring land owner, runs along the middle of the drain. We could not block the drain without the permission of the neighbouring land owner, as his land would become waterlogged.

During fieldwork, visits to the neighbouring area were made to assess the quality and health of the bog. The area had been drained in the past and turf had been spread on its surface although this was evidently many years ago. The effects of the drain highlighted in Figure 2 are very clear. The peat on both sides of the drain has shrunk and the bog is losing vast amounts of water into it. Birch encroachment, which shades out typical peatland vegetation, is also a problem close to the drains. Despite all of this activity, the cover of heather and Sphagnum moss has remained high. Many of the plants we would expect to see on an intact peatland are still present. Breeding pairs of snipe have been seen, along with a kestrel kill site and a few golden plover passing through. The area still remains an import refuge for wildlife, an island of habitat in the middle of a cutover bog desert.

Closer image of the boundary drain between Lodge Bog Nature Reserve and Lodge Bog South West. The information on the air photo highlights some of the work that must be done following purchase of the bog. © Google Earth

In the hopes of gaining permission to at least raise the water level slightly so as to slow down the loss of water from the bog on our side of the drain we went to our neighbour to discuss this possibility with him. As it turns out, the owner of the bog did not want to agree to raising the water level by any amount as he wanted to sell the bog, most likely to someone who would develop it for turf cutting. If this were to happen it would be disasterous, as the drains would all have to be improved, thereby increasing the rate of water loss. He did say however that he wanted to sell! We quickly informed him that we would buy it for nature conservation and restoration.

If the IPCC were to gain control of this area of bog, it would be possible to block these drains and not only restore an additional area of bog, but drastically improve the hydrology of the whole system, including what we own already. Further advantages to purchasing the area would be the opportunity to test out Sphagnum cultivation techniques on a cutover area of the bog on a large scale. If these techniques prove to be successful, which they have proven to be in Canada, then this would be used as an example of how cutaway peatlands may be restored into ecosystems resembling those that were there previously there, and not simply large lake complexes vastly different from their predecessors.

The site has great potential, as a reserve and as a research site that could form the basis of a change in peatland restoration practices in Ireland. This does have a price though.

The Lodge Bog South West Purchase and Restoration Project budget is Euro 49,625 in 2009. This includes buying 9.5 acres of land, blocking 1,975m of drains and sowing bog mosses on 1 acre of bare peat. Please print off this page, then tick, or fill in, the amount you wish to give to the project and send this form with your cheque or credit card details to me, Dr Catherine O'Connell, IPCC, Lullymore, Rathangan, Co. Kildare

O Yes, I want to help IPCC with the Lodge Bog South West Purchase and Restoration Project 2009 by making a donation of (please tick your own level) to the IPCC:

O Euro 24,815 O Euro 12,406 O Euro 6,203 O Euro 1,240 O Euro 620 O Euro 250*

O Euro 125 O Euro 85 or O I prefer to give Euro ...........................

* donations of Euro 250 or more qualify for tax refunds of 41% or 20% more to the IPCC, helping us to reach our funding target more quickly.

O I would like to volunteer on the project helping with the following activities in the summer months:

O Bog moss planting O drain blocking O all aspects

Please contact me at tel: ......................

My Name ...................................................
Address: .............
Contact Tel: .
Email: ....

º I enclose a cheque or postal order for Euro ................................ made payable to the IPCC or

Please debit my visa, mastercard or laser card (please circle as appropriate) for Euro .....................

Card Number: ..............................................................................................

Expiry Date: ....................................... Security Code: ................................

Signature: ....................................................................................................