Wetter is better at Wester Moss!

A nature reserve near Fallin is now even better for wildlife thanks to work that has been carried out by Butterfly Conservation Scotland through the Inner Forth Landscape Initiative.

If you have visited Butterfly Conservation Scotland’s nature reserve at Wester Moss, near Fallin, recently you will have noticed the surprising sight of a large orange digger in the middle of the bog! It’s not something you expect to see on a nature reserve, but this digger was working very much for the benefit of the wildlife of Wester Moss.

The digger has created a 500m bund that sweeps round the southern edge of the Moss in a large arc. The bund will help to stop water from draining away – and it is water that’s essential to the health of lowland raised bogs like Wester Moss. Butterfly Conservation Scotland hopes that by making the Moss wetter it will encourage more sphagnum mosses, the building blocks of the bog, to grow, and prevent trees and scrub from invading and shading out this vital ingredient of this rare habitat. This in turn will encourage the wildlife that relies on it to flourish, including rare butterflies and moths like large heath butterfly.

The work was co-funded by IFLI, through the Heritage Lottery Fund, and Ecoco LIFE (funded by the European Community). You can find out more  on IFLI’s website at www.innerforthlandscape.co.uk, and at Butterfly Conservation Scotland's website. 

Photo courtesy of David Palmar/www.photoscot.co.uk