Hard at work restoring Häsener Luch

LIFE Multi Peat project team clears overgrowth, seeds site with peat-forming plants

4. March 2026 – A busy day of intense physical and mechanical labour in the degraded peatland Häsener Luch has brought the LIFE Multi Peat project site a few steps closer to the vision of a once-again wet, thriving peatland ecosystem. The proposal for this international peatland restoration project was submitted in 2020, with initial on-the-ground measures starting in 2021. A monitoring system was established to measure peat depth and water levels. From 2023 onward, preparations for the comprehensive rewetting of the site took form, with the reactivation of three vintage water-retaining shaft structures from the GDR era.

Over the past winter, overgrowth was systematically removed from around a hectare and a half of the site. After the initial draining of the peatland many decades prior, the original peatland vegetation was edged out by brushy overgrowth, which blocked the light from reaching the peatland plants. The project team began the intensive work of reversing this process, and subsequently prepared the ground with a specialised dozer, in order to ready the soil for seeding.

Special hay to kickstart peatland recovery

So that characteristic peatland plants may soon return to Häsener Luch, the team spread eight large bales of specialised hay over the site. This hay is seeded with typical vegetation from a neighboring peatland with an abundance of specialised species. These plant species are of enormous importance to the overall recovery of the site and its natural ecosystem processes, since they are peat-forming. In combination with the strategic raising of site water levels, this helps to kickstart recovery and reduce CO₂ emissions from this still partially drained peatland. Aquatic mint, saw-wort, meadow campion and sedge species will hopefully soon sprout from the ground here and set the wheels of peat formation in motion.

From next winter on, 13 additional water retention points will help control and maintain ideal water levels in the site. One step at a time, the project moves ever closer to the end goal of a wet, healthy peatland rich in biodiversity.

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

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