By Dominic Uhelski - Michigan Technological University
The PeatRestore project aims to bring together peatland professionals from academic, government, and NGO spaces to collaborate on products that catalyze peatland restoration by co-developing practical and timely tools and guidance.
The PeatRestore project is a USDA Forest Service R&D funded project in collaboration with partners at The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Michigan Technological University, and University of Minnesota, which brings together researchers, regulators, and practitioners to produce and disseminate novel products that catalyze peatland restoration efforts. Having started in Fall 2024, we have already grown to include over 50 people. We leverage the wide range of experience and perspectives available in our community to co-develop a variety of well-rounded products including novel mapping products, restoration guides, decision support tools, monitoring protocols, extension articles, and worksheets to enable peatland restoration. These products will assist in site prioritization and evaluation, restoration planning and implementation, post-restoration monitoring, and peatland conservation. We are presently in the process of developing most of these products through a series of working groups. Our first product, a map of peatland area, land use, and climate impact of restoration in the Unites States is live now! We also have periodic virtual networking meetings, a LinkedIn group, and serve to connect people with experts who can answer their peatland restoration-related questions.
Experts confer on challenges to peatland restoration at the PeatRestore September kickoff meeting, September 2024. Photo credit: Erik Lilleskov
Our working groups address topics ranging from peatland restoration in agricultural environments, to climate change and fire management implications, to adaptive management protocols, to tool development. We also connect with the Pew Charitable Trusts’ US Conservation Program Team, focusing on wetlands as nature-based solutions, to ensure the best science is available to them, and to understand and share lessons learned from restoration policy implementation in places like Minnesota. To get connected and become involved with any of these working groups, please write to Dominic Uhelski (dmuhelsk@mtu.edu).
We are excited by the opportunity to connect with the Can-Peat program, and we look forward to expanding those connections in the coming months. We hope that by working together we can forge a more durable and effective community of peatland professionals, and further the progress of ecosystem restoration in North America.