Lars makes 53 football pitches available for carbon project

A landowner has made land equivalent to 53 football pitches available for the Nature Agency’s largest lowland restoration project, where work has now begun to raise water levels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, DR reports.

Excavators are crushing drainage pipes and filling ditches in the Tim River valley, north of Ringkøbing. The 87-hectare project covers the equivalent of 122 football pitches and involves eight landowners. Lars Danielsen has contributed the largest share of the land.

Danielsen said he was pleased the project was finally moving ahead after around seven years of meetings and planning. Project leader Helle Kalkrup, from the Nature Agency’s West Jutland office, called the start of work an important milestone.

The project aims to flood low-lying land in the valley. A higher water level prevents oxygen from reaching the peat and combining with carbon to form carbon dioxide, according to the article.

Nature Agency calculations estimate the project will keep 1,542 tonnes of CO2 equivalents out of the atmosphere, roughly the amount emitted by 118 standard Danish households in a year. It is also expected to reduce nitrogen emissions to Ringkøbing Fjord by 1,948 kilograms a year.

The restored area is expected to create a larger, connected natural habitat. Otters have been seen nearby but do not currently live there; Kalkrup said they could move in as the habitat develops. Few lowland projects have yet been completed, and the process has been criticised as lengthy and bureaucratic.