Watch Out for Flying Heather
by Bonnie Alter, London on 02. 1.08
Helicopters are dropping bales containing billions of heather seeds on the peat bogs in the Midlands of England. Ordinarily and historically, peat bogs are natural storages for C02 and are an important aspect of the fight against climate change because they remove carbon from the air as they grow and store it in their wet, peaty terrain. But the problem is that they are now drying up and leaking the gas, in some cases as much as a town of 50,000 people would emit. Scientists attribute this to years of industrial pollution, overgrazing by sheep and fire. They call these land-based emissions a "ticking time bomb", potentially as serious as those from cars and airplanes.
The Peak District is one of the worst affected because of its location at the southern end. To combat against dryness the National Trust is bombing a 4,200 hectare area with over four thousand bales of heather seeds which should start growing in the spring. The seeds will also be spread by volunteers. They are also trying to grow berries and moss. A pity about the helicopters, but a novel solution nonetheless. :: Guardian
Heather seeding. What is the intent? Keeping the CO2 in Plant form. As a bog fills it becomes a raised bog, and the newly elevated bog becomes soil as well. I guess they are trying to accelerate the natural process. The Great Heath of Canada is one of the largest producers of Peat moss in the world . Whats going on there? I hope they are not GMO seeds. If so what characteristic are they after?