Peat Pits in De Wieden - overview
Natuurmonumenten
The pilot is realized in the Dutch nature reserve area called “De Wieden”. The project makes De Wieden suitable to keep carbon in the soil and to reduce more carbon in the future. De Wieden is part of a national park Weeribben-Wieden in the Netherlands.
De Wieden is a nature reserve area with peat pits, fens, lakes, reed lands, marshes, shrubs, forests, quaking bogs, transitional fens, terrestrialising fens.
The pilot consists of two distinct actions:
- 9,7 hectares forested fen area (lowland peatland): terrestrialised peat pits, formed after historic peat excavation. These fens were excavated again (up to 80 cm of peat will be excavated) to re-start the process of terrestrialisation. The work started October 2020. April 2021 this work finished.
- Future foreshore area: in a lake (surface water, ~1.5 m deep) the excavated peaty material will be stored underwater. The work started in April 2020 and finished in August 2020.
Context
Challenges addressed
Location
8302 KW, Emmeloord, Flevoland, Netherlands
West and South Europe
Impacts
The peat pits are dug and the foreshore is created. Currently, the pilot site is fully developed as planned. The quality of the habitat is improved and the habitat area for desired species is increased. After a year, the bare patches are vegetated and unusual species occur.
Water quality is improved and will improve more in the coming years. The result of this project is: more space for peat growing and GHG storage, peat pits can become GHG pits. Secondly, there is more space for reed which will improve water quality in the coming years.
