”Forest to bog” restoration involves adopting the same approach as with restoring open peatlands, but with added complexity, of sometimes deep and wide manmade drainage channels and tree roots. The principles are similar and aim to raise and stabilise water tables as much as possible and restore the natural topography of the peat surface.
Restoring a bog from forestry takes a lot of work. It begins with felling the non-native conifers. Forestry drains and furrows are then blocked. Recycled plastic dams are particularly useful for the larger drains and in the faster flowing water drains where peat dams would simply get wasted away.
Masterpile sheet piling is lightweight yet strong, can be cut with conventional wood working equipment, which means you can work around expected and unexpected landscaping challenges and install your dams, with immediate results.
You can see from these installations the challenges faced to slow down the fast flowing water in these man-made forestry ditches. Peat dams will get washed away and timber difficult to install. Masterpile was the solution, driven into the ditch edge and across, with a small drainage point cut into the middle to direct the water through, rather than it breaching all along the top level. Often the middle pile on a dam is set lower than the others for the very same reason, but as these ditches are quite narrow, a smaller width of drain point was needed so the V shape was cut into the pile on site. Thus creating a calmer pool at the base of the dam for the suspended solids to fall to the bottom and begin the peat forming journey.
Masterpile sheet piling is light, yet strong, so easy to carry over terrain not accessible by vehicles. Being thin wall 4-5 mm means minimal ground disturbance when driving in and it can be cut in location, allowing you the versatility to adapt to site conditions as they present themselves.
