Sisal is a plant that is native to warmer climates than Scotland. Our mesh has come from East Africa. The leaves of the plant are picked, dried and made into a tight woven mesh by local community groups. This can then be used for any number of things. Our ex project officer Hugh met with John Ferguson of the East African Sisal company and the idea of using it at Little Firthhope developed from there.
The delivery to Little Firthhope was made by the usual Hagglund trip. The sisal is much heavier and bulkier than the jute so it took quite a bit of effort to move it on and off the machine. However once delivered we were then able to lay it out on site.
|Loading up Hagglund at Talla Moss|
|The dump of materials is made to a misty, wet Little Firthhope|
|Assembly of workers at Sisal dump|
|Laying the sisal matting|
|The older jute mesh and coir rolls with the new sisal behind|
|Coir roll with establishing Sphagnum and Eriophorum (cotton grass)|
|Developing Sphagnum bog in netting|
|Empetrum (crow berry) stabilising peat under netting|
|Eriophorum growing through netting|
|Filling bags with peat|
|Dammed pool with peat bags and bag fillers|
(all pictures are courtesy of Philip Ashmole)