m na type public semi state company founded ireland 1946 headquarters newbridge county kildare ireland key people mike quinn ceo revenue 432.8 million 1 2016 number of employees 2 240 2016 divisions biomass powergen resource recovery fuels horticulture peat website www.bordnamona.ie bord na m na irish pronunciation b o d n m o n english peat board is a semi state company in ireland created in 1946 by the turf development act 1946 . the company began developing the peatlands of ireland with the aim to provide economic benefit for irish midland communities and achieve security of energy supply for the recently formed irish republic . 2 the development of peatlands involved the mechanised harvesting of peat which took place primarily in the midlands of ireland . 2 over the years bord na m na has expanded and diversified its portfolio of businesses to include biomass procurement and supply power generation peat based and renewable waste recovery domestic fuel products and professional and domestic horticulture products . 3 in 2015 the company announced that the harvesting of peat for power generation is to be phased out by 2030 at which point the company would complete its transition to new sustainable businesses located across its bogs and landholding . 4 the new sustainable businesses and activities located across bord na m na s bogs are said to include ; renewable energy development domestic fuels biomass development waste recovery horticulture eco tourism and community amenities . 3 it is worth noting that although bord na m na will cease harvesting vast amounts of peat to supply power plants they will continue to harvest peat for their horticulture and fuels businesses . 5 contents 1 history 2 biodiversity 3 harvesting 4 railways 5 land reclamation 6 see also 7 external links 8 references history edit bord na m na was originally established in 1933 as the turf development board limited . the reason for the formation of the turf development board was to develop and improve the turf industry ... and ... to operate and drain bogs ... . 6 later in 1946 the turf development board changed its name to bord na m na under the turf development act of 1946 . this move saw a change in status from that of a limited liability company to a statutory company as well as some significant changes in strategy and operations . 2 world war ii had a substantial impact on the development of ireland s peat industry and the foundation of bord na m na in 1946 . during the war it was necessary to stockpile peat as a fuel as coal was in short supply due to a sharp reduction in imports and the coal that was being imported was of poor quality . world war ii resulted in the implementation of a number of emergency fuel schemes with a particular focus on peat as fuel for the people of ireland both inside and outside of traditional turf areas . it is estimated that before the war the annual production of turf per year was three million tons . the war effort added two million tons a year to this . 2 the use of peat as a fuel source during world war ii reinforced the irish government s commitment to develop ireland s bogs as an indigenous source of energy . 6 after the war the irish government had a renewed focus on the production of turf by mechanical processes and its sale at prices that cause it to compete effectively with other fuels . the war raised a valid concern around the security of indigenous fuel for ireland . the resulting solution was a white paper issued by the government setting out what later became known as the first development programme . 2 up to the 1950s ireland s bog were harvested for turf but from the 1950s right through to modern times the bogs were harvested for milled peat . this new method of peat harvesting gave way to harvesting on a scale not yet seen before in ireland . a number of bogs in the midlands were the proving ground for this new style of harvesting and are still in production to this day . the primary counties for peat harvesting took place in ; kildare offaly galway longford roscommon and tipperary . these areas still continue to be the main areas of peat production . 7 biodiversity edit bord na m na has been responsible for both gains and losses of biodiversity across the bogs under their control . this loss of biodiversity is due to the company s operations which progressively altered the terrain of bogs in their ownership . bord na m na has made some effort to offset the impact of their operations over the years . in the 1970 s a group of bord na m na employees led by tom barry who was peatland environmental officer at the time drove an initiative to preserve a number of bogs including pollardstown fen located in county kildare and raheenmore bog in county offaly . 8 during the 1980s and 1990s another internal drive saw the conservation of more bogs including bellacorick flush county mayo mongan bog clara bog and all saint s bog in county offaly . these bogs are now owned and managed by an taisce the national parks and wildlife service and other organisations . 7 in 2010 bord na m na launched its first biodiversity action plan . 9 this plan set out a number of objectives and actions to be carried out over a five year period i.e. 2010 2015 . it also gave an overview of rehabilitation work natural colonisation projects and the biodiversity of the company s cutaway bogs . it also highlighted the biodiversity projects in progress and those completed . 9 in 2016 bord na m na released a second biodiversity action plan . 7 this subsequent plan was developed to build upon the objectives of the first action plan while also looking to the future of bord na m na s peatlands with regard to bord na m na s announcement to stop harvesting peat for electricity production by 2030 . 4 speaking about the biodiversity action plans bord na m na s senior ecologist dr. catherine farrell said we all need to work together in bord na m na to ensure the best outcomes for rehabilitation and biodiversity . this will be critical to the delivery of our biodiversity action plans . 10 harvesting edit bord na m na milled peat harvesting in the bog of allen peat was traditionally manually harvested by operating cutaway bogs . this method still privately used today consists of sods being vertically cut from the side face of a peat deposit . technology was derived to mechanically cut and remove layers of peat from blanket bogs . today equipment is used to remove tonnes of peat each day at suitable times of year rainfall is a significant variable in peat harvesting . almost all the peat now harvested is milled peat scraped from the surface of the bog by tractor towed pin millers . the milled peat is ridged into small piles which are then transferred by harvesters into large piles running parallel along the bog . railways are laid alongside each pile the pile loaded into trains and the railway lifted and moved to the next pile . this is the peco method of working . a few bogs use the haku method whereby the milled peat is loaded into tractor towed caterpillar tracked trailers and deposited in a single heap at the edge of the bog adjacent to a railway line . each year the network of drainage ditches is deepened by a few inches before the next harvest . bord na m na has developed a number of products which were novel developments in their time . today peat briquettes replace sods of raw peat as a domestic fuel . these briquettes consist of shredded peat compressed to form a slow burning easily stored and transported fuel . the first milled peat plant run by the bord was financed with a loan of 500 000 from guinness in 1957 . 11 another product developed was peat moss a combination of peat and soil for use in the garden particularly in pot plants . the company also supplies peat to power stations of the electricity supply board and its own power station edenderry power . railways edit an extensive 3 ft 914 mm narrow gauge network is operated by the company in the midlands . some smaller sections of railway were used in other bog locations for example in county donegal until recent when years . bord na m na has an extensive network which has carried up to 5 million tonnes annually citation needed and is larger than the main network passenger and freight operated by iarnr d ireann . citation needed bord na m na has one of the largest industrial railways in europe . citation needed permanent railways run from a hundred peat bogs each covering hundreds of acres to power stations briquette factories moss peat factories and roadside tipplers . on most of the bogs temporary tracks are laid along the piles of peat the full length of most bogs . before a pile has been cleared another temporary line will have been laid a few hundred feet farther along . more than 200 miles over 300 km of temporary track are laid each year citation needed and the bord have specialist track fabrication workshops tracklaying machines and a fleet of dedicated locomotives and rolling stock on hand . citation needed a few bogs are operated by the haku process where the peat is collected in one huge heap at the end or side of a bog requiring only one railway line to serve it . clonmacnoise and west offaly railway clonmacnoise and west offaly railway a succession of trains here three are visible bring milled peat to the shannonbridge electricity generating station . part of the blackwater bog system was also used for tourist trains the clonmacnoise and west offaly railway colloquially the bog train for about 12 years . this service ceased permanently on october 2008 as it interfered with the heavy peat traffic heading for west offaly power station . one line of the blackwater system runs along a section of the former ballinasloe branch canal . this includes a section where the railway runs through kylemore lock . the newest branch of this system runs north from existing bogs at bloomhill to the new bogs of kilgarvan and bunnahinley the latter in the outskirts of athlone and opened for traffic c2011 . all 3 of bord na mona s old steam locomotives are preserved one by the irish steam preservation society at stradbally county laois . each of the three power stations west offaly at shannonbridge co offaly edenderry co offaly lough ree lanesborough co longford is the hub of an extensive rail network carrying heavy traffic . as an example 12 trains or rakes locomotive 16 wagons were in daily use 16 hours a day at west offaly in april 2009 . other generally older locomotives handle fuel trains track trainloads of track ash trains and permanent way gangs . the edenderry power station is now 2012 deriving a lot of its fuel from woodchip and types of biomass and the amount of peat arriving by rail is diminishing . the two briquette factories at derrinlough co offaly and littleton co tipperary each have rail connections to 6 or 8 working bogs . between 4 and 6 peat trains work on each system the trains almost always travelling in pairs as they do at the power stations . bord na mona also operate several smaller bog railways delivering the peat to tipplers for transfer by road to factories and power stations . they can be found