Rural Payments and Services

Felling trees and scrub from bog and fen habitats can be an important measure to help to restore the water levels in the peatlands. However, where this creates a large volume of felled material it can lead to an increase in nutrient inputs and can also make grazing the site difficult and lead to later problems with scrub regrowth.

Aim to remove felled material from drier peatland sites, and from drier areas of sites which have good adjacent access routes.

Removal by machinery

Extract felled, snedded trunks should be extracted using methods and routes that minimise the likelihood of damage to the surface of the bog or fen.

Machinery can cause damage to the moss surface and vegetation. Therefore select machinery and extraction routes carefully to go through drier areas, preferably those vegetated with taller heather or rushes. Use low ground-pressure machines on wetland sites and operate in appropriate weather conditions to minimise habitat damage.

Do not over use tracks to the point where the peat surface becomes broken, select alternative routes before this occurs. You can use brash mats to cover a machinery route to protect the surface of the bog.

Chipping

If felled trees or scrub are not suitable for sale as timber or firewood, the material can be chipped. The chipped material can be used to make porous dams or should be collected in piles away from the surface of the bog or fen.

Burning

Where the felling operation results in large amounts of brash, this can be burnt on corrugated sheets. This should be done off the bog or fen areas.

Arisings from flailing

In the case of gorse and sometimes rhododendron, it may be possible to flail dense scrub at the edges of a site. Ideally in such cases, arisings should be collected and either burnt / composted off site or on site on corrugated sheets.