Ox Mountains Bog Habitat Improvement

February 25, 2021
CABBSpecies Conservation and Land Management

The history of this unique habitat, like that of so many other Irish bogs, was a close call with environmental degradation.  Through a collaborative project to restore the bog, the future for the animals and plants of this special area is now more secure.

In the wilds of western Sligo and north eastern Mayo, a vast area of upland habitat stretches some 10,500 hectares making up the Ox Mountains Bog Special Area of Conservation.  It is a unique ecosystem with an array of habitats and species specially adapted to life in a very wet and acidic environment.  There are large areas of active blanket bog, wet heath, quaking lawn and bog pool mosaics, as well as more heathery areas of dry heath.  The moss species Sphagnum beothuk, only recently discovered in Ireland, can be found in the wettest areas of the very nutrient poor bog pools.  Carnivorous plants with exotic sounding names out of an alchemists recipe book, such as Oblong-leaved Sundew and Lesser Bladderwort, extend their cunningly evolved traps for insects to supplement their nitrogen intake.

Common Cottongrass, with its familiar bright white bobbing cotton heads, is another bog specialist found here and uses large air filled cells in its roots with tubes to the surface to function as snorkels, allowing the plant to survive the oxygen poor environment underground.  Some species of beetle are known to live in these tiny cells as subterranean homes.  The very rare and local Marsh Saxifrage can still be found opening its yellow flowers here in August, and a number of  red listed bird species declining nationally, such as Golden Plover and Greenland White Fronted Geese, still breed or forage in the upland habitats here.  Its a very special place.