Commonhead Moss is situated on the edge of the M73 motorway between Easterhouse in Glasgow and Drumpellier Park on the outskirts of Coatbridge. It is the largest area of degraded raised bog remaining in Glasgow, covers 18 hectares and was designated a LNR (Local Nature Reserve) in 2009.
(View over Commonhead Moss)
The bog supports a wide range of plant and animal life, including Bog Rosemary, and is only one of three sites for this rare plant in Glasgow. It’s also a haven for insects such as dragonflies, damselflies and the rare Green Hairstreak butterfly.
Not surprisingly, bogs thrive when they are wet and soggy, but if there are too many trees nearby, they can draw out the moisture from the ground. A number of measures have already been put in place to keep the bog boggy, including blocking up drainage ditches, building dams at strategic points on the site and ongoing tree removal.
(Dense Birch woodland before the saws and loppers came out)
And now for the science bit! Apart from supporting plant and animal life, bogs act as natural carbon storage systems but, when they dry out, they can release huge amounts of Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere – something we don’t want as this contributes to climate change.
Monday 4th November was a perfect winter’s day for the Midweek Group to spend removing Birch from the fringes of Commonhead Moss. We had a small team that day but we managed to clear a lot of saplings and small trees to open up the woodland and help cut down water loss from the bog. As we worked, we piled the branches and tree trunks in nearby ditches.
(Views of the site being opened up)
Before we left for the day we also did a litter pick in the woods and cleared about a dozen bin bags of plastic bags, bottles, duvet covers, nappies (why?) and assorted junk from the site. When we work on sites like this it always saddens me how much disregard some people can have for the natural environment.
(Rubbish that has been here so long that moss has grown over a training shoe!)
Glasgow City Council have tried to deter the “dumb dumpers” but so far it has been largely ignored and people continue to dump all manner of rubbish and junk on the site. Sadly, it was beyond our resources that day to clear the whole area of rubbish but we made a very good start.
(Rubbish free footpath)