What is a bog?

A bog is a type of wetland. It is covered in mosses, plants and pools of water, and below the surface is all made of peat. Although it looks like solid land, it is more like a spongy carpet.

FarmPEAT (Farm Payments for Ecological and Agricultural Transitions) is a project which focuses on the protection of sensitive habitats found on the raised bogs in the midlands. Promoting sustainable land use and supporting local landowners using nature-friendly farming practices, the aim is to connect communities to Ireland’s unique peat landscape.

Promoting rural life

Paddy Malone works with the Irish Rural Link as public liaison officer. This job involves creating programmes and projects to promote peat landscapes in the midlands. Over the last few years, he has delivered workshops, organised field trips and given presentations to schools all over the region.

These are delivered free of charge and are linked back to the class curriculum. Paddy tells IFJ Junior: “We appreciate teachers have more than enough to be doing, they really have a full diary every day and the last thing we wanted to do was to give them expense and extra work.

Love Your Wellies 2022 winner Mark Fox from Kilteevin NS with his entire school, community members and the FarmPEAT team.

Growing up, Paddy was always artistic, but felt that there was never a compe­tition for that skillset. This is where he got the idea to develop a competition with different themes and formats, where students could get creative and tell their own stories. “I wanted to create something that was all-inclusive,” he said.

The intention of FarmPEAT’s ‘Love Your Wellies’ (LYW) competition is to deliver a competition that appeals to all students’ interests and skills. By fully engaging with students, the hope is to create awareness surrounding the FarmPEAT Project and the wider peat landscape.

Paddy says: “It isn’t about prizes, it isn’t about podiums, it is about promoting rural life to the kids, to get them to appreciate where they are from.”

Surpassing expectations

Last year, during its pilot year, the LYW competition received more entrants than initially expected.

Paddy recalls: “Our target audience was supposed to be 60-70 schools within a close catchment of our eight programme sites around the midlands. Because of popular demand after two days, it became a national competition.”

Brideswell NS at their local bog.

“We didn’t have the capacity for that as I was only one person, so I called on the support of my team and we did our best to get out to as many schools as possible.”

By the end of the competition’s pilot year, over 1,000 schools were engaging in the programme. The campaign also reached over 1m people on social media over four months, with entrants from every county in Ireland, Europe and even North America.

School workshops

One of the services provided by this campaign is school workshops. These workshops involve an in-person visit from two LYW team members. Paddy says that due to last year’s demand, this year “there will be a team of four of us available to provide workshops in schools.” Priority is given to the schools within the four midland counties close to the eight programme sites.

During the workshop, a presentation is given on the importance of raised bogs, the peat landscape and why it is relevant on a global scale.

“We were truly blown away by the amount [of knowledge] that the primary students already had. They really are an inspiring bunch when you get talking to them, there are so many of them out there that have a hunger to learn about it, which is something I didn’t expect,” says Paddy.

What is an EIP?

FarmPEAT is an European Innovation Partnership (EIP) agri scheme. The EIP funds projects that allow farmers, scientists and other experts to collaborate together to develop new practices that are environmentally friendly and economically sustainable. Paddy explains: “We have staff who are on the ground with farmers every day, doing the scoring and taking measures. The dissemination of information to enrich everyone’s knowledge is an important pillar. We have no expenses to give to the schools – we provide all the workshops and are fortunate that our team has teaching experience.”

Competition

The ‘Love Your Wellies’ competition is open for entrants for 2023. The closing date for entries is 14 April. Students choose a theme, a format and tell their story. The four themes are:

  • Environment.
  • Farming.
  • Community.
  • History.
  • The format of entries can be in a model, literacy, artistic and digital forms. The competition winner will receive €1,000 and the school of the winning entrant will also receive €1,000. There are other prizes for the winners and schools in second and third place. Visit www.farmpeat.ie for more information.