wise use of mires and peatlands - Peatland Ecology Research Group

VALUES AND FUCTIONS OF MIRES AND PEATLANDS59spread on special floors to germinate undercontrolled conditions for about two weeks.The “green malt” is then dried slowly over asmouldering peat fire. The more prolongedthe kilning and the more intensive the peat“reek”, the richer the peaty flavour of theproduct.Kilning and curing are arts passed down fromgeneration to generation and each distilleryor malting maintains strict security over theprocesses involved. Thus, little informationis available on the importance of peat qualityand quantity in the malting process. Ingeneral, highly decomposed peat, knownlocally as blue or black peat, seems to bepreferred.Despite the disadvantages associated withsmall-scale production units, some distilleriesand individual maltings still select, cut andharvest their own peat supplies annually.More recently the use of air-dried peat sodsto fuel open fires in the traditional maltingprocess is being superseded by thecombustion of peat pellets in special burnersresulting in better overall control andefficiency and a significant reduction in thequantity of peat required.In China the flavour from burning local peatis used for making “weisky wine” 68 .(b) Drinking water 69The role of peatlands in the provision ofdrinking water is important both in areaswhere catchment areas are largely coveredby peatlands, and in drier regions wherepeatlands indicate a rare but steadyavailability of water.Significant areas of the British uplands aresecured by the various Water Authorities,that supply water to distant urban centres,e.g. Welsh water to Liverpool andBirmingham, and Lake District water toManchester. Haworth Moor of “WutheringHeight” fame, for example, was owned byNorth West Water 70 . In case of YorkshireWater, some 45% of the water for publicsupply is obtained from reservoirs drainingpeatland areas. The water company owns alarge area of the catchment and manages itfor water quality improvement by preventingpollution, limiting erosion, reinstalling highwater tables, and restoring moorland speciessuch as Sphagnum 71 . Often this use isassociated with the construction of waterreservoirs (see also §3.4.2 (f)).Mires may fulfil an essential role as sourceareas for rivers; especially in maintaining lowflows during dry periods. New techniquesusing long horizontal rather than vertical wellsshow that they can provide significantamounts of groundwater withoutcompromising ecosystem quality.Where or when existing water resources arerare, mires and peatlands can be important assources of water 72 , for examples in KwaZulu-Natal 73 and in Sarawak 74 .The water quality in peatlands is usually verygood; the frequently abundant humic acidsresponsible for deep brown colouring caneasily be removed 75 .(ca) Wild plants growing on mires andpeatlands for food 76One of the oldest and most widespreadutilisation of wild plants in peatlands is theiruse as straw and fodder for domestic animals.In Europe, Asia, and North America, fenpeatlands have been intensively cut for hayin the past. In the last decades this type ofuse has decreased, but it is still importantlocally in Central Europe. Peatlands are alsoimportant as wild pasture for domesticanimals in many areas of the world, such asfor cattle on Argentinian pampas and Lesothoand Kyrgistan mountain peatlands 77 , forsheep and red deer in the Scottish blanketpeatlands, and for water buffalo in Georgiaand Kalimantan 78 .