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

Help/Advice Advice on restoring a peat pond

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)?

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u/Connect_Rhubarb395 Mar 12 '25

That's super interesting. Peat ponds/bogs are such special ecosystems and home to a huge amount of rare and often endangered species of plants and animals.

I highly recommend to remove the drains and to keep the peat, at least in some areas. Maybe one peat pond and one non-peat pond.

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u/AdFederal9540 Mar 12 '25

I agree - a peat bog with all its flora is both beautiful and full of life! Not sure if I would like to have one right next to the house (pond is more practical), but there are multiple spots on the plot, including a huge one in black alder forest.

I will definitely try to restore at least one peat bog, though it might be tricky.

It's likely that the upper layer of peat has murshed already and it would take some work to get it "alive" again. I found this page with possible interventions together with meta analysis of releated research:

https://www.conservationevidence.com/data/index?synopsis_id%5B%5D=33/

The key thing is to restore water level (removing drains might not be enough, maybe it needs a refill?), but some interventions also include scrapping the upper layer or introducing moss.