Peatland restoration plan for area of Invershin Forest
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Forestry and Land Scotland is seeking to undertake peatland restoration work at a Sutherland woodland.
An application for prior notification and prior approval of the project has been submitted to Highland Council.
The site identified for the work is an open area of blanket bog covering some 36 hectares in the centre of Invershin Forest, located around five miles north of Bonar Bridge.
Forestry and Land Scotland say the area was not ploughed or planted when the rest of the woodland was established in the late 1980s - probably because it was considered too wet.
However there is concern than non-native conifer regeneration is currently encroaching across large parts of the site in varying sizes and density.
Work proposed includes the removal of the sporadic non-conifer regeneration followed by drain blocking and re-profiling on the open bog.
Forestry and Land Scotland state: “The encroaching regeneration will be removed by cutting with chainsaws, hand tools or by pulling by hand.
“It is anticipated that this will be carried out by a squad of four to six cutters and will take around four to six weeks.
“The drain blocking will then be delivered using a 14-tonne excavator. Wave damming techniques will be used to block and re-profile the old grip drains with peat dams placed at 5m intervals. This part of the operation should be completed in around two weeks.”
Forestry and Land Scotland hoped to start work on January 10 with a finish date of March 31. However, according to the Highland Council eplanning site, the application is still “under consideration”.
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