By Fred Pearce – Yale Environment 360 Blog – September 28, 2011

The draining and burning of peat bogs is a major global source of CO2 emissions. Now, a pilot project in Russia - where wildfires burned vast areas of dried-out bogs last summer - is looking to re-flood and restore tens of thousands of acres to their natural state. Wild fires that swept across Russia during the record heat wave last summer wrecked crops, triggered a global surge in wheat prices, caused pitch-black smogs that killed thousands of people and - though not much noted at the time - poured huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The gas came mainly from burning peat in wide areas of drained bogs around Moscow. The world had seen nothing like it since peat bogs burned in Indonesia in 1998, shrouding neighboring countries in smoke for weeks. The Moscow fires were a stark reminder that peat bogs are the third greatest source of CO2 emissions - after burning fossil fuels and deforestation. For full blog post, click here. To visit the Yale blog, click here.

There hasn't been much good to say about the Great Dismal Swamp wildfire. In less than three weeks, it has torched 6,000 acres and the resulting smoke continues to pose health risks from Suffolk to Gloucester County and beyond. There is, however, a potential positive effect. Believed to have started Aug. 4 by lightning, the fire is fed by peat — a carbon-rich blanket of vegetation that covers the swamp floor. It can be as deep as 30 feet. To read full article, click here.

The Delaware Wave

Officials are trying to prevent an orange-toothed invader from laying waste to Delaware's wetlands.

Though only a few nutria have been sighted in Delaware, the rapidly reproducing rodents have the potential to explode in population -- as they did decades ago in Maryland to devastating effect. A non-native species imported to the U.S. as a potential fur source, nutria compete with muskrat for food and destroy vast swaths of marshy land when they feed in numbers. To read more, click here.