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Hugh McLinden

Hugh McLinden

Conservation Ranger and District Conservation Officer with the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) in Wicklow Mountains National Park, Ireland, leading peatland restoration initiatives.

Jun 14, 2026

18:45
I've seen wooden dams
18:47
Th- this is, it's a whole new technique.
18:49
Uh, so this time last year myself and one of the local sheep farmers, Tony Anderson, um, we put our heads together to try and come up with a novel way of, A, using sheep fleece, and B, creating sediment traps that, that work on the bog.
19:01
So you can see here some of the examples that we've used.
19:03
There's different s- shapes and sizes, and we think we have a, a very effective, uh, replacement for the, the coir, uh, dam that actually ends up being used mo- in most places.
19:15
You'll see it.
19:15
So what happens is that coir is imported from India and Sri Lanka and brought through maybe the UK and, uh, it, it, it goes vast distances and it, obviously there's miles on the, on the clock in terms of how far it has to travel, and the carbon that's wasted just bringing them here.
20:37
So in five years' time or 10 years' time, how do you think this landscape might be if this work continues?

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