As a source of fossil fuel and gardening compost, peat bogs, those eminently British landscape features, are highly in demand — so much so that some environmentalists fear they are in danger of disappearing. But that danger might be staved off for a while, thanks to a multi-million dollar plan to use taxpayer money to save some of the United Kingdom’s most valuable peat bogs. The money will be used to compensate the U.S. peat-extraction company Scotts for ceasing operations on three critical sites. (Company employees will begin working on bog conservation instead.) The news was welcomed by environmental organizations, which have been campaigning for years to protect peat bogs. The bogs take thousand of years to form and they harbor unique wildlife, including the boghopper beetle and a yellow fly called the hairy canary.
