Over the past 18 months the Friends of Langland Moss community group have been teaming up with a group of volunteers dubbed the ‘Bog Squad’ to help restore Langlands Moss Local Nature Reserve. The ‘Bog Squad’ is a volunteer task force, created by Butterfly Conservation Scotland to carry out rehabilitation works on damaged peat bogs across the Scottish Central Belt, with funding from Scottish Natural Heritage’s led-Peatland ACTION project.
Volunteers at Langlands Moss - Credit Sara Green (Butterfly Conservation Scotland)
Langlands Moss LNR is a lowland raised bog located on the outskirts of East Kilbride which has been left damaged by past attempts at draining the moss for forestry. The local Friends group have been working hard to protect and improve the fortunes of Langlands since the group’s formation in 2006. And by working in partnership with the Bog Squad since April 2014 the joint efforts of the groups have resulted in the removal of large sections of invasive scrub and the installation of over 40 ditch-blocking dams. The effectiveness of the dams has been shown quickly with large pools of water being retained which is helping to re-wet the surrounding peat. Sphagnum has already colonised some of these pools and dragonflies have been taking advantage of the open water.
Langlands Moss is also home to a colony of the large heath butterfly, a species which is endemic to peatlands and is being threatened by the declining fortunes of these precious habitats. And just this year colonies of the declining green hairstreak butterfly and the nationally-scarce Manchester treble-bar moth have been found at Langlands underlining the biodiversity value of the nature reserve.
Further information on the Bog Squad can be found on their blog at http://bogsquad.weebly.com/
Further information on the Friends of Langlands Moss can be found at http://www.folm-ek.org/
David Hill, Peatland Restoration Project Officer
