Just over ten years ago a landslide occurred😢 likely due to the presence of #peat pipes💦 A site visit today showed how the area is starting to fix itself 💚 #Sphagnum has grown around these tussocks, giving an insight as to how peatlands can start to develop after a major disturbance 😊

Another guided walk in fabulous conditions 😂, this time for delegates at the Inter-island Environment Meeting #IIEM25 . We saw nothing of the surrounding hills 💚 but saw enough #peatland restoration, interesting fungi, mist and #sphagnum moss to keep everyone happy 💦🌿

Peat pipes can sometimes be seen emerging from #peat hags, like this one on Snaefell. These underground channels form as water 💦 passes through cracks in the peat, slowly eroding the peat around it. Sometimes the roof collapses to form a hole 😱 This one (photo 3) was nearly a metre deep!

This piece of wood, likely hawthorn🌳 was found at the base of a #peat hag on Snaefell. Wet, acidic peat can preserve materials for a very long time. Without carbon-dating, it's impossible to tell exactly how long this wood has been buried, but it's likely to be THOUSANDS of years old 😮

Yesterday we made the most of the beautiful weather 😆 to show #Tynwald members around our Beinn-y-Phott site. Despite the typical 'bog' conditions 💨💦 we were able to look at the work that's been done to reprofile and revegetate eroding peat hags and slow the flow of water 😊

It was great to be joined on Friday by Gareth from www.conservefor.co.uk 😊 We had a look at some of our #peatland sites and discussed different restoration methods. Gareth has many years of experience in this type of work and was happy to share his ideas while on the Island 👍

Beinn-y-Phott is one of the few places on the Island where fir clubmoss can be easily found🧐 Here it was found clinging to the overhanging edge of a peat hag💪These primitive, ancient plants reproduce by spores, like mosses, but are part of a group of vascular plants that are 400 million years old💚

Find out about the depth and extent of upland #peat on the Isle of Man by viewing our new interactive peatland map 😁 You can also view photographs 📸 of restoration areas, at fixed points, which will show changes over time. Visit our website to find out more www.manxpeat.org/map

This gorgeous, glowing mushroom was found growing among the #sphagnum 😍 It's amazing what you can find when you look closely 👀

We've been impressed by how much vegetation has established on reprofiled #peat hags, however some places need a helping hand 👇 This hag had areas where the peat was still bare, so we've transplanted some small plugs 🌿 from the adjacent hillside 😊

Damming small drainage ditches can have an immediate effect. What was once an area of dried out bare #peat is now a small upland pool. This will keep the surrounding peat wet and create habitat for invertebrates and birds 🐦See the last three photos to see the pool infilling 😊

A magical moment 😍 when the newly created pools are visited by a dragonfly 🐉 laying it's eggs. The restoration of wet areas within peatlands benefits wildlife, carbon storage and drought resilience 😁

Cutting #peat for fuel in the past has left some areas of the hills with bare, eroding peat. In these places the first step is to slow the flow of water💦 which we have done here using coir logs. We are currently trialling growing our own moss for use on this site 🌿😊

It's nearly time for restoration work to start again, so we made the most of the calm weather to gather some drone shots of the site before the work😊 This site was historically cut for fuel, which has left exposed and eroding peat hags, shallow vegetated gullies and hidden peat pipes.

Invertebrates are an important source of food for upland birds 🦟🐦 Craneflies and midges are most common, but the warm weather has brought out the flying ants. Unfortunately these ones have landed in a #peaty pool 😬

One of the few cottongrass seed heads left on the hills 😢 But just as we lose these summer beauties, the autumn brings out the vibrant colours of sphagnum mosses ☺️ The seasonal change in peatland vegetation transforms the colour of the hills 💚🤍💜🧡

Some more before and after photos, this time from Beinn-y-Phott. The first two show a large peat pipe which was reprofiled last winter. The second two photos show a peat hag which was reprofiled just before a large storm, which caused some damage, but it is now looking lovely and green 🌿 ☺️

Bog Asphodel flowers are turning from yellow to orange as they fruit, but they still look beautiful ☺️ They grow in wet, acidic conditions and were once thought to cause brittle bones in livestock. The plants can cause problems for lambs, however other plants are usually eaten in preference 🐏

The purple heathered hills are awash with flowers at the moment ☺️Calluna vulgaris is the most common heather species found on the #isleofman but you can also see bell heather and cross-leaved heath 💜

Hands up if you love peatlands!💚

We've started putting up signs at our #peatland restoration sites☺️ Check out these ones near Black Hut 👀 More will be installed over the next few weeks and you can click on the QR code to find out what's going on 💚

An abundance of berries and bees on Beinn-y-Phott today 🐝 Blaeberries and crowberries are out and the bumblebees are loving the cross-leaved heath 💜

This bog asphodel plant is tucked into a damp, sheltered area behind a coir log, which was previously bare #peat 😍 It's the only one at the moment, but the cottongrass and sphagnum are spreading and creating conditions suitable for other bog species to become established 😊🌿

Who doesn't love a sundew? 😍 These carnivorous plants are in flower at the moment, but you have to look closely, they're very small! Spikey yellow-sedge are also fruiting on our #peat restoration sites 😀

Many upland species are now in full summer mode, despite the weather not feeling particularly warm! Bell heather is in bloom, providing nectar for many invertebrates 🐝🦋, blaeberries are out 😋 and so was an emperor moth caterpillar 🐛💚

Before and after photos are a great way of assessing how our work is going. This type of monitoring will continue over the next few years, but already we can see massive changes 😃 The digger work on this site only started in February this year and just look at the difference now!🌿🌱

A carpet of sphagnum moss and marsh violet on one of our planned #peat restoration sites 😍 This site has some really nice wet habitat but also areas of degraded, eroding peat. To preserve the sphagnum carpet (and prevent the digger getting stuck😉) the work on this site will be done by hand 💪

We were joined at our Black Hut restoration site by John Moss of Manx Radio 😊 www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of...

First piece about the new #LostPeatlands project. If those on the peatlands feed or working on other conservation projects could give it a repost it would be much appreciated! If you’ve got things you want to see us develop, deliver or evidence, let us know. businessnewswales.com/new-funding-...

The damming of a drainage channel, step by step ☺️ These dams will raise the water table in the surrounding peat, keeping it nice and wet 💦 They also create shallow pools which will benefit wildlife 🐦🦟

What a glorious sight at our Black Hut restoration area 😍 The fluffy seed heads of common cottongrass are covering the coir netting in 'summer snow' 🌱This area of bare peat is starting to revegetate ☺️

The hills are loving this weather of sunshine and showers 😊 Shallow pools on one of our #peat restoration sites are full of sphagnum moss and the sundews are out, ready to catch any unsuspecting invertebrates 🦟🕷😋

Dog's sick slime mould 🤢found on Beinn-y-Phott last autumn🧐 Slime mould amoeba group together when their food is in short supply or when they want to reproduce. This blob is known as a plasmodium and acts like a single organism, moving around in search of food 🍔

Polytrichum (haircap moss) capsules are starting to emerge from their calyptrae, ready to release their spores 🌱These have caught the early morning moisture and are glinting in the sunlight ☺️

Is it a sign of too much time alone in the hills when you start seeing faces in the peat hags? Asking for a friend 😉

The sphagnum moss is loving this wet weather 💦💚 Small pools of water have been trapped behind coir logs, creating the perfect conditions for aquatic species. Hummock-forming species, such as sphagnum papillosum, are poking through the coir netting, which provides shelter from extremes of weather ☀️🌧❄️

Heath milkwort is abundant on Mullagh Ouyr at the moment. These beautiful purple/blue flowers💠 are easy to miss, but look closely and you'll see them everywhere 🤩

The hare's tail cotton grass is showing its full fluffiness at the old turbary site on Beinn-y-Phott at the moment ☺️The blaeberries are starting to flower, the birds are singing🐦 and the lambs baa-ing 🐑All we need now is some rain to keep the sphagnum happy,💦🌱

The hills are alive with spring colours and birdsong at the moment 🐦Vibrant red blaeberry shoots, green fir clubmoss and fluffy white cottongrass 💚 This diversity of upland vegetation supports a number of rare bird species and is what makes our hills so special 😊

These unusual hummocks were found in an area with fairly short vegetation. They appear to be comprised of sphagnum and haircap moss, with a topping of heather and lichen. Several sphagnum species naturally form hummocks, but they don't normally look quite like this 🧐

New shoots of blaeberry growing through coir netting 😍Nets, along with heather brash, are used to cover areas of bare peat and help them to re-vegetate. This net was installed on Mullagh Ouyr last year by a group of volunteers, and is already starting to blend in to the surrounding vegetation 🌱

We ordered great weather for our 'Power to the Peatlands' event this morning ☀️😊 The team managed to cover the bare peat with heather brash and coir netting, protecting it from the weather and helping vegetation to grow🌱

Shallow peaty pools have been created behind coir logs at our restoration site😊 and common cottongrass and #sphagnum moss🌱 are starting to colonise the bare #peat. These shallow pools also provide a nice breeding habitat for invertebrates, such as craneflies, which will feed upland breeding birds 🐦

It was great to be joined by Conservation Biology and Ecology student, Eliott, today for some peatland work🌱 It was a deceptively chilly but lovely day on Snaefell, and we surveyed peat hags, spread heather brash and installed coir netting😊

Today we had to channel our inner Grinch and remove these planted Christmas trees🎄from a #peatland area. Planting these may seem like a good idea, but they are unlikely to survive and Santa probably won't even find them🎅 Non-native species are best kept in the garden 🙏😊

Most of the wildlife 🐇🐦was too quick for the camera today, but the hummocks of #sphagnum moss glowing in the sunlight and the flowering cotton grass were very obliging ☺️

A feast for the eyes 👀 today! The hills are looking beautiful in the sunshine after the rain 🌞, with firey calyptrae of polytrichum moss and spun diamonds clinging to sheep wool on a #peat hag💦

A feast for the eyes 👀 today! The hills are looking beautiful in the sunshine after the rain 🌞, with firey calyptrae of polytrichum moss and spun diamonds clinging to sheep wool on a #peat hag💦

Check out the latest blog on our website www.manxpeat.org/blog 😊 If you're planning on gardening this year, make sure you go peat-free to protect these valuable habitats 🌱🙏

Have you ever wished you could walk on water?💦 This little fella 🪳is happily wandering over the flowering ivy-leaved crowfoot in a blocked peatland ditch. If anyone knows what species it is, we'd love to know!