Was supposed to be up on Langlands Moss today building dams for the local nature reserve. The weather looked rather promising this morning but unfortunately it's turned absolutely wild!! Gale force winds and heavy rain..no good when moving 3 metre panels and using a sledgehammer!! ha ha.
Hopefully we'll be back up next weekend weather permitting. We're currently there just now to do work on the Moss as it has just became a nature conservation area/sight of special scientific interest. The land was previously a conifer plantation, which was cut down and considered for the site of a new landfill in East Kilbride, this was rejected fiercely by the community (obviously)..this was on top of - quite a few years ago - a peat company wishing to turn the site into a peat 'mine'.
Finally the council stepped in and had the land granted the title of SSSI. As the conifers were cut down and the stumps left, large hummocks have been left on the land covered in moss and heather. We need to transform the nutrient levels of the moss in order to make it habitable to more wildlife. In order for us to do so we need to raise th acidity of the soil, which assures no further or at most very little growth again of conifers or wild flowers.
In order to raise the acidity of the soil, we have decided to make dams in the area coming down in steps from the crest of the hill. As the dams fill up with water and back up, a type of fungus called spagnum develops in the trapped and stagnant water. This spagnum is what turns the soil acidic. Gradually over many months and years the spagnum spreads up above the water line and across the landscape. There may be a few - if not just one - conifer tree still growing in the moss, these are usually cut down if they appear in large numbers, but they have a more novel use in the eyes of conservation.
As the conifers are supposedly unable to grow in acidic soil, they are a good guage to read as to how the nutrients in the soil are changing. If there are many small to medium confiers then the spread of acidity isn't far enough. Whereas if you have many medium to large trees then you know something is obviously wrong.
In the area we are working - Neptune's Staircase - there is one lonesome conifer tree in the distance, one solitary tree lost in a field of stemmed growth and prosperity. This is perfect for our work as we can use this to mesaure it's growth, colour and condition to judge the acidity of the soil without any special scientific mesaurements..it's nature's own natural acidity guage.
The dam's are holding up well and are filling quite nicely. I had a few pictures of the dams we've built so far but unfortunately I deleted the email and have requested the pictures again, once I have them I will post them here or link to them on the next blog.
