Sphagnum

Sphagnum moss is typical surface cover of blanket bog - flat, wet and unglamorous-looking landscapes that are rich in wildlife and (when the moss and other plants decay to peat) also on carbon. It's the predominant habitat in west Caithness and east Sutherland, except where large chunks were planted with sitka spruce and lodgepole pine in the 1980s, largely as speculative investments for private individuals with incomes large enough to front the capital and recoup the tax breaks. In a lot of places, the trees are ready to come out - and are unlikely to get replanted under current forestry policy and grant regimes. Which in the grand scheme of things is probably good, as the land can be restored to something that will eventually look and function something like it did in its original state. Unless of course your soon-to-be-former forest gets a load of heavy infrastructure built on it, deeper and more permanent than forestry roads and ploughing. Which is probably on balance a bad thing - even if the purpose of the new building is to generate cleaner energy. Will a new wind farm on old forest that should never have been planted help or hinder bog restoration - and is doing half anon quickly better than doing a proper job, even if it takes what seems an inordinately long time? Tough and slightly equivocal stuff; though I know where I stand on the specifics of the case that's brought me and colleagues this far north for a short bit of suited procedure in the morning.