The Irish Peatland Society is again organising a series of field trips over two days on 8th and 9th October 2024 with Agriculture and Peatlands as the core theme of the study tour. Starting and finishing in Tullamore, Co. Offaly, the programme includes visits to six peatland sites with a key stop-off at Gurteen Agricultural College in Co. Tipperary.

 

This event will include visiting sites of paludiculture and sphagnum farming; an eddy covariance tower being used to collect data in order to manage water table levels (REWET project) for the benefit of carbon store protection, as well as a tower that is part of the Teagasc NASCO network; and also a FarmPEAT site to see ecological wetland improvement, drain blocking and water table monitoring. There will also be a talk about the impact of incentive paid farming on the design of the ACRES and ACRES co-op schemes.

 

In 2026 the Society is planning to host an international field-based conference, with Agriculture and Peatlands as its core theme, and both this and next year’s autumn study tours are being scoped as a lead-in to the 2026 event.