Wick’s heating scheme woodland to be restored to natural peatland
A forest being felled to fuel the Wick District Heating Scheme will be restored to peat bog to improve its biodiversity and carbon credentials.
The 87-hectare site at Braehour Forest, around six miles south of Halkirk, is in the process of being cleared, and was originally intended to be replanted with commercial conifer crops.
However, Forestry and Land Scotland has now notified Highland Council that it intends to “re-wet” this part of the wider Achilbster site.
The local heating scheme, operated by Ignis Wick Ltd, provides hot water to around 200 domestic properties in the town, alongside a hospital, a public meeting room/concert hall and also supplies steam to the Old Pulteney Distillery.
In its prior notification application for the peatland restoration scheme, FLS says that other parts of the Braehour Forest are in the process of being restored back to peatland, with some included in the Flow Country World Heritage Site designation agreed last year by Unesco delegates.
The block of forest also borders a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) which is part of the wider Caithness and Sutherland Peatlands special protected area (SPA).
The statement with the planning documents states: “The Achlibster project involves the restoration of a further 87ha of former conifer plantation which is currently being clearfelled to provide fuel for the Wick District Heating Scheme.
“The site lies in the northern half of the Braehour block and sits immediately north of the Lathach nam Poiteag open bog site which was restored in 2018/19 and south and east of the former industrial peat extraction area on which restoration work took place in 2015/16.”
Works on the new area of felled forest to be restored to peatland are proposed to begin on May 1, with completion scheduled by the end of March next year.
More than 55ha of the forest have already been cleared, with the remainder of the trees expected to be removed by mid-summer. Plough furrows left from previous tree planting will be filled using ground smoothing techniques to level the surface of the peat.
The old forest drain network will be blocked and reprofiled with peat dams used where necessary in order to raise the water table back to as near its natural level as possible.
The FLS statement adds: “On the Achlibster site there is very little residual peatland vegetation, other than on the forest ride network, however, where this does exist techniques will be used that preserve and protect any remnant areas to help speed up the recovery of the bog flora.”
The forest area being felled is typical of much of the non-native forestry in the north HIghlands, which was planted in drained areas of peat largely due to tax breaks in the 1970s and 80s.
The current management of these areas is conducted under the FLS Land Management Plan for Caithness, which shows the majority of this block being restored back to blanket bog.
