Peat Pits in De Wieden

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.