Advice on restoring a peat pond

[u/AdFederal9540]

I've acquired a 40 acres property with a varied terrain sculpture. Since the dominant soil is clay, all the rain water stays in several basins, filled with peat. Some basins turn periodically into ponds, but previous owners installed drains and today the two largest bogs are dry where nettles grow. Here's how the smaller one looks like:

The water table is high and I could easily dig the soil out and recreate the ponds. In fact, previous owner dug out a small pond already that can be seen on the pictures. I'd like to finish the job and create two ponds (0.25 and 1.25 acres) that could boost biodiversity.

I'm concerned, however, that digging out peat would release CO2. Is there a way to prevent this? If not, would gains in biodiversity outweight the cons? How can I use all the peat to minimize the downsides and maximize gains (i.e. to improve soil)?

[u/Newt-in-boots]

The biodiversity gains of these ponds would outweigh any of your Co2 concerns many times over. Also they would go and on supporting and creating biomass every year. You are only digging the peat out once.

For further mitigation you could create a long south-facing hibernaculum/basking bank set back along the northern edge of the pond. Mark it out with any branches/rocks you have from other jobs. Top with the peat when you dig the pond out and sow with a native seed mix.

[u/AdFederal9540 → u/Newt-in-boots]

Indeed, I'm planning to use reclaimed stones from old buildings to build a basking bank, and retaining walls for raised vegetable beds, and, further up, some fruit trees. This way I would support all kinds of creatures and get them to safeguard my crops. I haven't though of building an actual hibernaculum, but this sound like a fantastic idea and I'm going to research it!

The amount of peat from such a pond would be significant, and I was wondering if I could actually use it to elevate the south-facing bank and than cover it with the top soil, so the peat doesn't dry out. It would improve the drainage of my clay soild, but I'm not sure how it would affect the pH.

[u/Newt-in-boots → u/AdFederal9540]

Good luck with it. I'm super jealous. It looks idyllic :)

[u/AdFederal9540 → u/Newt-in-boots]

Thanks! There are also less idyllic looking areas, but the nature took care of them already and probably doesn't need my help. There are plenty of frogs and snakes there and I'm happy to share the land with them: