FarmPEAT information event at Cloncrow Bog

A community information event about farming on peat soils is taking place at Cloncrow Bog in Tyrrellspass on Friday April 5.

Organised by FarmPEAT (Farm Payments for Ecological and Agricultural Transitions), in conjuction with Everything Tyrrellspass has on Show (ETHOS) and Kilbeggan Community Group, the event will feature a talk on farming on peat soils and how peat probes work. Attendees will also learn about recent conservation and restoration works at Cloncrow Bog and how peatlands can provide community employment through a Just Transition.

Cloncrow Bog is one of eight sites in the midlands chosen for FarmPEAT, an EU-funded programme programme for farmers who manage lands that surround some of Ireland's finest remaining raised bogs.

According to the FarmPEAT website, “ the project will design and trial a scheme especially adapted to the local landscape that will incentivise the delivery of enhanced environmental outcomes”.

“The programme will reward farmers for improved management of habitats on peat soils along with other important landscape features such as eskers, field boundaries and watercourses. The programme will be results-based whereby farmers will get paid depending on the scores they achieve, with higher scores, indicating higher environmental quality, getting higher payments.

“It is hoped that this programme will form a basis for future agri-environmental schemes in these areas. As such it presents an opportunity for farmers to be involved in developing policy that could provide long term environmental and economic benefits to their communities into the future.”

The FarmPEAT programme is being run by the project team which is based in Moate.

The information event at Cloncrow on April 5 starts at 2pm and will run for two hours with attendees meeting beforehand at Tyrrellspass Castle. You can register for the event here.