Peat Extraction

Commercial horticulture in many regions of the world depends upon Sphagnum peat as a potting-media substrate, but extracting peat has serious environmental consequences. Composts may be able to serve as effective substitutes for peat and offer potential environmental advantages. The suitability of compost as potting media depends upon the raw materials as well as processing methods used. This study includes two related experiments—one with beet (Beta vulgaris L.) and the other with tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)—aimed at assessing the potential viability of farm-produced, food-residuals compost as a replacement for peat-based potting media in the production of organic vegetable transplants. The experiments were conducted in 2021 on the Berea College Farm in Kentucky, USA, a USDA certified organic farm. The results indicated that potting media composed of 75% to 100% compost performed as well as fertilized, peat-based growing media for plant growth. Further, although weeds were pre...

Oudenbosch is a town in the western part of the Dutch province of North Brabant, which was founded in 1301 in relation to peat extraction and refining salt. On a map from 1565 we see an intricate pattern of watercourses. This article describes how those waterways are to be understood.

Peatlands constitute central habitats for the occurrence of wetland archaeological sites. Consisting of waterlogged organic soils, they also provide advantageous conditions for the preservation of organic materials. The economic utilisation of peatlands has been extensive and long-lasting in mire-rich Finland. Archaeologists urgently seek to develop viable techniques for detecting, monitoring, and studying peatland archaeological sites, before they are deteriorated. One option is to conduct fieldwalking at commercial peat extraction sites, which was opportunistically tested in the detection of Mesolithic sites at southern Lake Saimaa by the University of Helsinki in 2015. In this paper, the main observations and challenges of the survey are reviewed and suggestions for further testing are presented.

Historical reconstruction of (peat) landscape on the Dutch-Belgian border between Antwerp and Roosendaal.

Between 1250 - 1750 peat was extracted and transported to Flanders, Antwerp and Breda. The denudated landscape was reclaimed in the 19th-20th century. With an inventory of cultural heritage incl. remains of the peat landscape.

(English below)
De Zuiderzee is vanaf de late middeleeuwen tot de afsluiting in 1932 het dagelijkse vaargebied geweest van vele binnenschippers. Zij spelen een bescheiden rol binnen de maritieme geschiedschrijving van Nederland, omdat hun activiteiten nauwelijks sporen hebben achtergelaten in de archieven. Toch zijn er bronnen om deze tak van de scheepvaart te onderzoeken: de meer dan 450 scheepswrakken die hier vanaf de eerste inpolderingen tot en met recente duikoperaties zijn aangetroffen.

Dit proefschrift gaat dieper in op de betekenis van deze scheepsarcheologische vindplaatsen aan de hand van een casestudy: de turfvaart tussen 1550 en 1700. Onderzocht wordt in hoeverre de spectaculaire sociaaleconomische ontwikkeling die Holland in deze periode doormaakte, verband houdt met de Zuiderzee als centrum van een omvangrijk maritiem transportlandschap. Verschillende invalshoeken belichten het vervoer van turf over deze binnenzee: van macro-economische analyses tot een reconstructie van het dagelijkse leven van de turfschippers.

De historische maritieme archeologie van de turfvaart biedt zowel een vernieuwende kijk op het maritieme verleden van Nederland als een kader voor het interpreteren van scheepswrakken. Het beeld dat uit deze studie is ontstaan, zal bijdragen aan de herwaardering van het unieke erfgoed dat nog steeds voor een belangrijk deel verborgen ligt in de bodem van de voormalige Zuiderzee.

Summary

From the late Middle Ages up to its closure in 1932 the Zuiderzee harboured a substantial amount of trade routes for the daily transport of cargo in all directions. The inland skippers, although large in numbers, played a modest role in the Dutch maritime history, as their activities hardly left a significant trace in the paper archives. The main source of information of this maritime activity is the unique archaeological archive of more than 450 shipwrecks found in this area during land reclamation projects and recent dive investigations.

This PhD thesis features a case study that highlights the significance of these archaeological ship finds in relation to the maritime trade of peat, the main source of energy for pre-modern economy. It explores the extent to which the spectacular socio-economic development of Holland between 1550 and 1700 AD can be attributed to the Zuiderzee functioning as a hub in an extensive maritime transport landscape. The transport of peat across this inner sea is addressed from different angles, ranging from macro-economic analyses to the reconstruction of the daily routines of peat skippers.

The historical maritime archaeology of peat shipping offers a new historic perspective to the maritime past of The Netherlands and may well serve as a framework for future research into shipwrecks and their interpretation in a historical context. This PhD thesis contributes to a renewed appreciation for the unique cultural heritage that is still largely hidden in the seabed of the former Zuiderzee.






















Print on demand (October 1, 2021): http://www.barkhuis.nl/
Free download (September 23, 2021): https://research.rug.nl/nl/publications/de-zuiderzee-als-transportlandschap-historische-maritieme-archeol

In the coastal plains of French Flanders, West Flanders and Zeeland some areas of so called oudland remain. These are areas that experienced no serious flooding from the sea after 1100 AD. Some parts of the oudland still have a strikingly vivid micro relief today.
The back swamps of the oudland were agriculturally used since the 9th c., but almost also immediately for digging peat and clay for heating and for the production of salt, later also bricks and tiles. Those excavations went on well into the twentieth century!

The state in which we now find the sites depends on the age of the pits: an old pit will be completely filled up by silts and new peat, a less ancient pit only partially and a young pit will still be open water. The broad spectrum of phases of infilling, from open water to firm grassland, thus bears witness to the long and complex history of land use in the back swamps of the oudland. More attention should be given to this history of the thousand-year-old landscape in the visitor centre Groenwaecke in the Uitkerkse Polder and more generally in the management of these areas.

Culturally oriented studies on raised bogs in the Netherlands and neighbouring areas either focus on regional scale levels or on site/object-based information. Interdisciplinary microregional studies are key to bridge the gap between these types of data and to reconstruct human-land relations in detail. This paper analyses which cultural and natural processes were involved in the long-term development of a raised bog near Vriezenveen (province of Overijssel), by integrating geological, palynological, archaeological and historical geographical data. The study area includes both the bog, which has largely been reclaimed, and the nearby drylands. The landscape was subject to continuous change, driven by a complex and dynamic entanglement of environmental, socio-economic and ideological factors. The research results point to differences in the pace of landscape change between wetland and neighbouring drylands, and variability in the resilience of different cultural landscape elements and practices. They also illustrate the potentials as well as the problems of producing integrated narratives of landscape change and human activity for wetland environments and how these sorts of studies might be progressed in the future.

Raised bogs are popular research subjects in various scientific disciplines such as palaeobotany, climatology, archaeology and historical geography. However, interdisciplinary studies using a long-term cultural perspective are rare. This paper aims to make a contribution in that field by exploring the long-term development of raised bogs in the Netherlands, with a main focus on man-land relations. Central are the peatlands in the Pleistocene areas of the country that — with regard to peat inception, development, human use and exploitation — show patterns that are probably similar to those in larger parts of the North-west European Plain. Three spatial research levels are used. The first level offers a concise summary of the current knowledge level on bog development in the Netherlands and adjacent areas. The second level centres on the eastern Dutch region of Twente, and especially attempts to reconstruct the former maximum peat cover. In this region, as in most other parts of the Netherlands, hardly any peat remnants have survived to the present day. The third level consists of two detailed case-studies of smaller areas in Twente. This study shows that raised bogs, soon after they started developing, became intrinsic parts of settlement territories and were used in spatially and temporally varying ways. The assessment and integration of different types of data allows a more detailed and reliable reconstruction and analysis of long-term habitation patterns and man-land relations. The interdisciplinary approach also demonstrates which research deficits exist, allows new interdisciplinary questions to be asked and shows which methods may be applied in future studies.

Hypothesis: Deterioration of peat banks are different at different latitudes and longtitudes, thereby affecting the level of climate change. Horse poo can replace peat in the horticultural sector. Methodology There are two parts to this study both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Looking at the location of the peatlands and the climatic change on the biodiversity, and the second how peat may be replaced by horse excrement when the sales of bags of peat to the horticultural sector will be banned from 2024. This will have a devastating effect on the economy, especially in the Republic of Ireland. There is about £50m to support the restoration of 35,000 hectares of peat by 2025, about 1% of the total in the UK.

The geologically ancient tidewater region of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina rests precariously atop millions of years of erosion from the nearby Appalachian Mountains. An immense wetland at near sea level, it is host to every conceivable body of fresh water, ranging from brooding swamps and large hidden lakes to sluggish blackwater rivers and brackish sounds (one of which was so large an early explorer thought he had found the Pacific Ocean). In this engaging book, biologist and tidewater native Roy T Sawyer delivers an ecohistory of this unique waterland whose wind-driven tides cover a rich human and natural past.
    Jutting prominently into the Atlantic, this wetland is the final stop for the warmth of the Gulf Stream before it is deflected from the American mainland. At the top of a narrow, warm coastal strip, it provides an ideal home for a vast array of animal and plant life, including prodigious numbers of reptiles (such as the world's northernmost population of alligators) and overwntering waterfowl. It is also home to the oldest known living trees east of the Rocky Mountains. The climate and geography made the area a natural choice for the very early human habitation--- as far back as the last ice age, when the region was a rich oasis just south of a veritable  tundra.
    In examining the impact  of humans upon the environment, and vice-versa, Sawyer reveals how our alarming shortsightedness has produced a fragile and endangered present. Although human manipulation started here as early as ten thousand years ago (co-inciding with extinction of mammoths and other megafauna), the environment has been altered most radically over the last on hundred years, particularly in regard to land drainage, deforestation, overfishing, and pollution.
    The author provides an authoritative overview of the human impact on these wetlands and suggests ways in which we might still salvage them. In so doing, he explores the effects of hurricanes, droughts, forest fires, and ice ages of the past--- an anticipates, in this age of global warming, natural events that may be still to come.

The geologically ancient tidewater region of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina rests precariously atop millions of years of erosion from the nearby Appalachian Mountains. An immense wetland at near sea level, it is host to every conceivable body of fresh water, ranging from brooding swamps and large hidden lakes to sluggish blackwater rivers and brackish sounds (one of which was so large an early explorer thought he had found the Pacific Ocean). In this engaging book, biologist and tidewater native Roy T Sawyer delivers an ecohistory of this unique waterland whose wind-driven tides cover a rich human and natural past. Jutting prominently into the Atlantic, this wetland is the final stop for the warmth of the Gulf Stream before it is deflected from the American mainland. At the top of a narrow, warm coastal strip, it provides an ideal home for a vast array of animal and plant life, including prodigious numbers of reptiles (such as the world's northernmost popu...

The Trinity Centre for Environmental History seeks applicants for a fully-funded four-year award to start a PhD related to the project: ‘Peat mining as an unwritten chapter in the fossil fuel age’ led by Dr Katja Bruisch. Further information: https://histories-humanities.tcd.ie/assets/pdf/research/PeatMiningPPA.pdf

Recent years have witnessed much debate on the turn towards community within landscape management and planning. This is particularly evident in the European Landscape Convention which asserts the legitimacy of local preferences and citizen involvement in policy processes. This paper explores a bottom-up perspective on people–place relationships in a changing landscape, through assessing the after-use potential of industrially mined peatlands in Ireland and the rehabilitation of degraded landscapes. The mining of the peatland resource has a longstanding tradition in Ireland, however, significant attention has now focused on exploring market and non-market uses of remains after harvesting has finished resulting in a cutaway landscape. We argue that local people's everyday experiences of the landscape is a legitimate form of knowledge and should provide a key input into deliberative planning and management processes. Drawing largely on an interpretive research approach, we assess key local narratives in relation to harvested peatland landscapes and explore local people's after-use preferences. There appears to be strong support among the local community for amenity/biodiversity after-uses, which are currently not reflected in public policy debates. We review people–place relationships and discuss the role of ethnographic research in a peatland context as well as defining the relevant stakeholders. Finally, conclusions are developed to identify wider lessons for people/place relationships within the context of landscape management and planning.

"COMPLEXITY AND CONTRADICTION IN LANDSCAPE
PEAT LANDSCAPES AROUND AMSTERDAM

Jaap Evert Abrahamse and Menne Kosian

Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, Amersfoort, The Netherlands

j.abrahamse@cultureelerfgoed.nl
m.kosian@cultureelerfgoed.nl

theme: coast and islands
keywords: The Netherlands, landscape biography, sea and river dykes, Brettenzone, Amstelland

The Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands has recently conducted two research projects of the peat landscapes around Amsterdam, the Brettenzone to the west and Amstelland to the south. Both research projects were conceived along the lines of the landscape biography method, and are published as landscape atlases with extensive explanations. These are meant not only for planning and research professionals, but also for a wide range of stakeholders who are involved in decision processes concerning these landscapes.
The peat bogs in the coastal zones of Holland were first reclaimed for agricultural use in the 10th and 11th centuries. To facilitate agricultural use, patterns of parallel drainage ditches were dug across the landscape. This medieval structure is visible all over the western Netherlands, except where it has disappeared because of urbanization or the creation of new, man-made ‘nature’ areas. The draining of the lands caused an irreversable and continuous process of subsidence of the peaty underground. From the 13th century onwards, the grounds had to be protected from flooding by sea and river dykes. When surface levels descended even more, polders were formed to control water levels. Polder formation was costly and technically complex, and was directed from the cities.
In modern times, these two landscapes have developed in different ways. The Bretten area was cut through by an ever growing bundle of infrastructures. The first barge canal, the first railway and the first highway of the Netherlands were laid out here. Large tracts of agricultural land were covered over by thick layers of sand during the post-war era, with the intention of creating new harbour areas. These harbour facilities were never realised. As the area was left unattended, nature again took over. In the past decades, a new, exotic vegetation grew from the seeds that were carried along by the sand, that was trucked in from different places. The alternation of nature and urban areas causes great contrast in this landscape, which is quite incomparable with any other place. Amstelland, on the other hand, has remained an open, mainly agricultural polder landscape in the middle of a rapidly urbanizing area. In this paper, both landscape studies will be presented and compared. What is left in both cases is a cultural landscape structured by peat reclamations, sea and river dykes and infrastructure from different periods in history. These fragile, multi-layered landscapes now face challenges in the fields of agricultural modernization, climate change, changing political priorities and rapidly expanding urban centres.
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The utilisation of industrial residual products to develop new value-added materials and reduce their environmental footprint is one of the critical challenges of science and industry. Development of new multifunctional and bio-based composite materials is an excellent opportunity for the effective utilisation of residual industrial products and a right step in the Green Deal's direction as approved by the European Commission. Keeping the various issues in mind, we describe the manufacturing and characterisation of the three-component bio-based composites in this work. The key components are a bio-based binder made of peat, devulcanised crumb rubber (DCR) from used tyres, and part of the fly ash, i.e., the cenosphere (CS). The three-phase composites were prepared in the form of a block to investigate their mechanical properties and density, and in the form of granules for the determination of the sorption of water and oil products. We also investigated the properties' depend...

In this article, we summarise the results of recent research using ‘landscape biography’ to examine and explain the landscape of Amstelland, reclaimed from peatland over the past thousand years and now forming the southern periphery of the city of Amsterdam. The landscape biography method has been developed in the Netherlands as a way to integrate landscape research with planning and management. It is a method particularly appropriate to landscape research because of its interdisciplinary basis, its long view of history, its focus on visual data and GIS, and the interactive connection it seeks between expert knowledge and local knowledge. The research led to the publication of a landscape atlas, which by means of a chronological series of maps combined with extensive, illustrated explanation presents in accessible form a landscape-based synthesis of archaeological, archival or historical data. The Atlas is intended not only for planning and research, but also for an ever wider range of stakeholders involved in decision processes affecting these landscapes.