Green Gardens in the Age of Global Warming

Green Gardens in the Age of Global Warming

Taking a closer look at the Canadian sphagnum peat industry as it faces today’s environmental challenges.  

By Mollie Day

   With 25% of the world’s peatlands within its borders, Canada holds a wealth of sphagnum peat, the highly desirable soil conditioner used by professional horticulturists and home gardeners. Sphagnum peat’s high water and high oxygen capacity, lack of weed seeds and pests make it ideal for growing conditions; its low pH and nutrient content allow these characteristics to be raised to crop specific values. But as the world’s peatlands continue to decline, for multiple reasons, and with awareness of the peatlands’ valuable role in the global ecosystem on the rise, Canada moves into the spotlight; calling its role as a steward of the mire into question.
   Canada is the world's largest producer and exporter of sphagnum peat for horticultural use, supplying more than 98 percent of the media used in the United States. The country’s vast resource is a stark contrast to the UK, which holds one quarter of one percent of the world’s peatlands, but where much of the precious peat resource has been ravaged; In Great Britain over 94% of the country’s 69,000 hectares of peat bogs have been damaged or destroyed, mostly in the past 50 years since the promotion of large-scale use of peat for the horticultural industry.
   In 2006 the European Union’s Eco-label Regulatory Committee explicitly banned the use of eco-labeling on peat-based horticultural products. Critics from the EU do not support Canada’s practice of “restoration,” calling it a “distraction” from the main issue.
   Peat forms under cool, wet conditions, where lack of oxygen and low temperatures limit the rate at which mire material, trees, shrubs, grass, plant remains, human artifacts and even bodies break down. Under the right conditions peat can be the first step in the formation of coal, a process that takes millions of years. Peat has been forming for 360 million years and is still forming today at indeed a very slow rate of one millimeter per year. Because, like coal and lignite, peat’s slow rate of renewal is irrelevant to mankind, it is considered a “non-renewable” resource, according to the International Mire Conservation Group (IMCG). The group’s classification of peat helped to shape the EU Eco-labeling committee’s 2006 decision.  
   Dr. Hans Joosten, Professor of Peatland Science and Palaeoecology, Greifswald (Germany) and University Secretary General of the IMCG, explains that in Canada “peat” is confusingly called “peat moss.” “It is, however, not the moss they are harvesting but the fossil deposits that have been produced by the moss over a period of thousands of years,” says Joosten.
   Paul Short, President of the Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss Association (CSPMA) suggests no call to close the market in Canada because of the peatland conditions elsewhere. At the same time he demonstrates an awareness and concern for environmental issues. Short says comparing Canada to the UK is “inappropriate and misleading.”
   “It’s an incredibly different resource context. The UK has 1 million hectors of peatlands, about 1/4 of 1% of the worlds peatlands., Canada has111 million hectors or about 25% of the worlds peatlands.  Within Canada 81% of our peatlands are still virgin, Peat moss production accounts for only .016 % of total peatland uses in Canada” says Short.
   Short is well tuned to the importance of the industry’s responsibility to care for Canada’s peat resource and their public image. “In terms of looking at market presence, the key umbrella issues affecting the sphagnum moss industry are sustainability, certification, climate change, carbon sequestration, restoration and reclamation,” says Short. “All of those issues have a bearing on the market.”
   The CSPMA has taken strong strides to promote on-going research, to enact green practices on the mire and to make their endeavors public.  One effort the association continues to make, according to Short, “is putting clear, credible evidence founded on science in front of the market people.” The CSPMA’s efforts include, but are not limited to, providing funding for research regarding restoration practices through Université Laval in Quebec and regarding peatland disturbance and climate change. 
   “It’s quite admirable that the industry has taken the initiative and contributed the resources and time to the restoration and reclamation of peatlands – it shows a lot of responsibility on behalf of the industry,” says Maria Strack, a biologist at the University of Calgary and the co-author of a 2008 report entitled Peatland disturbance and climate change: What’s the role of Canada’s horticultural peat industry? The report was sponsored by the CPSMA.
   Peatlands play an important role in sequestering – or releasing – potent greenhouse gases including carbon and methane. Globally, peatlands represent an estimated one-third of total global soil carbon stock, with carbon storage twice the biomass of global forests. When peatlands are disturbed, harvested, drained or otherwise, peat begins to decompose and release carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. Untouched, the bogs remain a valuable carbon store.
   According to Strack’s report, and that of her co-author, J.P. Cagampan, Canadian peat horticultural carbon emissions represent .03% of all degraded peatlands worldwide.
   “We found that it’s [the disturbance is] actually a very small amount due to the quantity of peatlands being harvested,” says Strack. Currently 140 square kilometers per year are being affected by peat harvesting. That’s not much when you consider the size of other disturbance. In Western Canada fire disturbs 14,070 sq km per year. 
   The CSPMA sponsored Strack and Cagampan’s work with good reason. Increasingly, carbon-related regulations and public image weigh heavily on consumer activity.
   When asked if harvesting peatlands for horticultural purposes is an acceptable practice, Strack replies, “As long as we use best practices and have some restoration and reclamation after the fact that it can be an acceptable practice.”  Strack adds that there are many harvested sites across the country where there has been restoration and that “the Canadian technique has been well shown to be successful.”
   The main peat production season in Canada is from late May to mid-September. Prior to harvesting Canadian peat an appropriate site is chosen: typically an area of 50 hectares or more, with a minimum average depth of 2 meters of market-quality peat, is required. Once the site has been chosen, surveying and planning are carried out, followed by the drainage necessary to harvest the site. All surface vegetation is then cleared from the site.
   Parallel ditches that cut across the site help drain into the perimeter ditch, allowing the surface to dry and preventing equipment from sinking. Production requires favorable conditions, consecutive days without rain and an ample measure of wind and sun, in order to dry the surface layer of peat. 
   To further dry the peat, the uppermost layer of the bog is typically harrowed, breaking its capillary flow. One to three days later the dry peat is then removed with a vacuum harvester or other equipment. The bounty is then taken to a processing facility for screening and bagging. 
   Right after extraction there is no living plant or diaspore left on the peatfield. The CSPMA and its members have adopted a Preservation and Reclamation Policy that sets out the procedures for opening, harvesting and closing a bog. When following the policy’s management practices, producers will be sure to record flora and fauna on the peatland, prior to harvesting. After the harvest, water flow will be restored and the area will be re-planted in order to begin “reclamation” process of the preexisting peatland, forest, wetland, agricultural crop, etc.
   The CSPMA continues to treat peat as a renewable resource. The association claims that with the right restoration and reclamation efforts, peatlands can be restored to functioning ecosystems within 3 to 5 years. That estimate is a far cry from fact that peat grows at a rate of 1 millimeter per year.
   “It takes time for peat growth to be successful,” Strack says. “We’re saying that once you have the vegetation in place, the system will take off and develop peat. There’s good evidence that that’s starting after 5-10 years.”
   Hans Joosten opposes the CSPMA’s criteria for successful peat restoration. “What is in fact only done is that a peat moss cover is re-established,” says Joosten. He maintains that in order to restore a peatland and its fossil deposits to what it was it takes several thousands of years, i.e. the same time as it has taken the original bog to produce and accumulate the layer of peat that has been removed.
   Peat deposits are found around the world. While production levels in Canada and Germany far exceed those of any other country, Eustonia, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, Russia and the US are also among the world’s producers of horticultural peat. A small percentage of the total global landmass of peatlands has been exploited for agriculture, but with significant environmental repercussions. Globally peat losses exceed the new formation of peat by a factor of 20, according to the European Parliament’s Resolution for Biomass and Biofuels.
   Paul Short maintains that the CSPMA is committing dollars to “leading edge research” and that the industry’s impact remains small. Of Canada’s total hectors .016% is harvested of peat for commercial, horticultural use.  “All the bogs in Canada would cover the four most western states and the size of the peat harvesting industry is less than the area covered by the City of Portand, Oregon.”  says Short. Other impacts include forestry: .02%, reservoirs: .8%, and agriculture: 15%. Regarding the future impact of the peat industry, Short says that, “the number may expand, but it won’t be orders of magnitude that will make it a significant number.”
   As the consumer’s understanding of peat shifts, certain members of the peat industry have adjusted their approach to the market. The Irish PLC Bord na Móna, once reviled by conservationists for destroying ecologically sensitive bogs in the interest of fuel and soil enhancement products, has changed its tune in recent years. Bord na Móna remains a producer of the “Shamrock” brand, peat-based growing media and peat briquettes for the heating market. In addition to its various fossil fuel-based energy, fuel and horticulture products, the company has expanded its product line and shifted consumer image through sales of “environmental” products. Those products include wind energy, shell-based filters, and peat-based media and filters used to aid air emissions control and wastewater treatment, respectively.
   Canadian peat producers are not faced with the shortage of peatlands that may steer producers such as Ireland in its particular direction. The CSPMA intends to continue its efforts to promote what the association and others call a “sustainable” crop.
   With a close eye and a firm grasp on Canada’s consumer image, Short adds that the CSPMA will continue to increase information sharing with both the market and consumer.
   “The industry is committed to moving forward on reporting and investigating our sustainability issues and on research in restoration and reclamation and other issues of sustainable accounting,” says Short.