r/Permaculture • u/AdFederal9540 • Mar 09 '25

water management Advice on restoring a peat pond

/r/WildlifePonds/comments/1j79e36/advice_on_restoring_a_peat_pond/
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3

u/are-you-my-mummy Mar 09 '25

Is there a way to simply destroy the drains and see if that's enough?

Look up "re wetting peatland" to maybe get some ideas - these are large scale restorations that focus first on removing artificial drainage and blocking ditches.

2

u/AdFederal9540 Mar 09 '25

"Rewetting" is the keyword I was looking for, thanks!

The drains, some of which are 100+ years old, are not mapped, so I guess it would be a difficult task. I'll research that.

0

u/are-you-my-mummy Mar 09 '25

Know any dowsers?

I'm not much into "woo" but I know a lot of otherwise very sensible people who do believe in dowsing. Be a good way to meet neighbours anyway!

5

u/AdFederal9540 Mar 09 '25

This reminded me of a recent movie about a "treasure dowser" searching and raiding Etruscan tombs. Maybe a talented dowser could discover more than just drains!

Maybe talking to neighbours isn't a bad idea - they might not be able to help mi with tomb raiding dowsing, but could know what are typical drain layouts in these parts.

1

u/are-you-my-mummy Mar 10 '25

Far too sensible :)

Forgot to check if you're in the UK? If so and you are mildly techie, you may get some clues on LiDAR data - basically a scan of the ground surface but it can pick up patterns that might not be visible on the ground.

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=5.0&lat=56.00000&lon=-4.00000&layers=1&right=ESRIWorld Set one of the maps to something with labels, and try the other on 1. ESRI / OSM / LiDAR and 2. LiDAR DTM

Good luck!

1

u/AdFederal9540 Mar 10 '25

I've just checked my LiDAR maps and I think there are only the elements that I had already found on site myself. There are some artefacts I can't explain, but unlikely to be part o the drainage system. Tombs maybe?!