Bringing back reindeer pastures in cutaway peatlands

摘要

European Union and national carbon neutrality targets entail the release of hundreds of hectares of cutaway peatlands annually from energy peat extraction in Finland, creating opportunities to reclaim them as reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) summer pastures and support an important local traditional livelihood hampered by intensive land use. To our knowledge, this is the first study to test whether reindeer summer pastures can be reclaimed. In 2017, we established a field experiment to investigate whether machinery transplanting of native plant species and sowing of seed mixtures promoted the establishment of forage plants preferred by reindeer. The transplanted species were Eriophorum vaginatum, Equisetum fluviatile, and Menyanthes trifoliata. Two tested seed mixtures contained different varieties of Phleum pratense which were surveyed. Plant cover and biomass growth, and growth-influencing factors like peat properties and water level, were surveyed during 2018–2020. Eriophorum vaginatum tolerated transplanting well, doubling its cover during the study. Equisetum fluviatile was slower to establish. Mechanical transplanting of M. trifoliata failed; manual planting was promising. Sowing seed mixtures provided forage more quickly, generating larger cover than the transplanted natural plants. However, transplanting and sowing face problems. Transplanting is expensive and technically demanding, and removing plants from their growing sites may harm the surrounding vegetation. Meanwhile, the required regular maintenance of P. pratense is costly. Although the short monitoring period limits conclusions, our results suggest that a suitable combination of transplanting, sowing, and natural succession may be a solution for reclaiming former reindeer summer pastures.