– As far as we know, this is the first time in the world that this has been tested, says Pål-Steinar Karlsen, head of the West Oppland project in the Norwegian Public Roads Administration. Bogs are being rehabilitated in several places, but in this case it is done by moving bogs, literally. National highway 4 above Lygna on Hadeland in the interior is to be expanded. Some sections will be an extension of the existing road, in other places a completely new route. Karlsen says that the purpose of the move is to make the total climate emissions as small as possible, when the road is still to be built. A total of 6-700 cubic meters of bog must be moved. Pål-Steinar Karlsen, project manager in the Norwegian Public Roads Administration. Photo: Bjørnar Morønning / news Environmental sins from the 1960s – We have local knowledge here. We know that there are bogs here in the area that were drained in the 1960s. – This gave us an idea. How about taking bog masses from today’s road development and moving there? He emphasizes that we still lack a lot of knowledge, and that measurements remain for several years to come. For example, it is not known exactly how large the CO2 emissions will be during the actual moving of the bog masses. It is also not clear whether the bog masses maintain their ability to store CO2 when moving. It is also uncertain how quickly the water level in the marsh will rise and how quickly the top vegetation will be re-established. In recent years, several projects have been initiated to restore bogs. 180 bogs have been restored in Norway, but one researcher believes that not enough money is spent on monitoring to check what effect this has. Different types of damage to bogs Karlsen says that the “old” bogs that were destroyed in the 60s are different. – Some are drained and dry, some are deep, some are shallow. We want to contribute to gaining better knowledge about methane and CO2 emissions from different types of bog. But a natural question arises: Why should new roads be built on top of bog at all? – Not all places can avoid it. The community wants to build a new road between point A and B. And between point A and B there is a bog. – But to the greatest extent possible we should avoid that, says Karlsen. – Will always be a net loss County leader of the Nature Conservation Association in the Interior, Ole Midthun, says that this type of project is initially very positive. – The good thing is that we have reached the point in the debate here in Norway, where you have to defend the development of bogs. He says that road development is very land-intensive, and that it affects vulnerable nature. – Here there will be a net loss anyway. You can never move a bog and keep the same functions 100 percent, he says. Ole Midthun is the county leader of the Nature Conservation Association. Photo: Bjørnar Morønning / news Pål-Steinar Karlsen believes that road development in Hadeland has become more gentle in other ways as well. Originally, there was a plan to lay the new road on a route which meant that 40,000 cubic meters of bog had to be dug up and destroyed. – Now there is a greater focus on taking care of nature. So this option was rejected, says Karlsen. The current route is to a greater extent an extension of the width of the existing road. – In addition, the contractor has contributed with various solutions that save both space and money. We are now down to a quarter of the cost of building a brand new road. Even Stensrud, environmental adviser at the Norwegian Road Administration. Photo: Bjørnar Morønning / news Even Stensrud, environmental adviser in the Norwegian Road Administration, says that there are many characteristics of the destroyed bogs from the 1960s. Among other things, the groundwater has sunk, and therefore there will be different vegetation. – There is much more dwarf birch and willow thicket than there would otherwise be, he says. – The dream is to get the old top peat back, so that the mire gets back the natural diversity it once had. – Is it possible to return nature to its original form? – We believe that the top peat will return, but the original bog collapsed and fell apart after the ditching in the 60s. We will not be able to restore this completely, says Stensrud. – But it is precisely in order to be able to document the extent to which what we do has an effect or not, that we do all the surveys of the marsh both before, during and after the measures. Should preferably not build on bogs Suzanne Wien, senior adviser for natural diversity and protected areas at the State Administrator in the Interior, says that the starting point should always be to avoid road development on bogs at all. – If that is not possible, there will be compensation, she says. Wien says that they are following the project to learn from the methodology, and to learn how this can be done in the best possible way. Published 17.10.2024, at 21.08
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Unique project in Hadeland where they move bogs that are destroyed by road development – news Innlandet – Local news, TV and radio
