National Trust for Scotland are overseeing two new exciting peatland projects at Ben Lomond that will see both restoration and a palaeoecological survey take place.
Restoration at Ben Lomond
Contractors have started work over large areas of the mountain building peat dams and reprofiling peat hags to repair damage caused by early 20th Century drainage work and grazing on the hill. Funded by Scottish Natural Heritage's Peatland Action, plans are in place to block 5 km's of drains, which will raise water levels and re-wet the bog, and reprofile 8 km's of peat hag. These works should improve the site for the rare wildlife that thrive on peatlands and reduce CO2 emissions of the site by an estimated 80-100 tonnes per year (equivalent to the emissions of around 20 houses).
Palaeoecological Survey
Although smaller in scale, this project which is funded by a generous donation from the NTS Foundation USA, will greatly increase knowledge of the history and timescales of woodland wax and wane, and the development of peat in the Loch Lomond area. In turn, this will also reveal the impact of humans over time on the lochside.
To date a sample peat core has been taken by experts from Stirling University, to a depth of around 2.6m - this includes the silt layer below the peat. Using this core, experts will be able to calculate a carbon date using a small piece of birch twig found near the base of the core. This will provide information on when the climate changed to become wetter and enable peat formation.
Over the next few months, a researcher will take multiple peat cores at regular intervals on site, and study the pollen grains in each sample to give a picture of how much woodland was present at different stages in history, as well as what species were present and dominant.
The history of settlement on the east side of Loch Lomond is poorly documented, so it is hoped that these pollen deposits will also give a better picture as to the history of the area.
