Moss Layer Transfer Technique — Canadian Peatland Restoration Standard

Since 1992, Université Laval's Peatland Ecology Research Group (GRET/PERG) and the Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss Association have developed the Moss Layer Transfer Technique (MLTT), an eight-step protocol that blocks drainage ditches to rewet extracted bogs and reintroduces a donor moss layer (roughly a 1:10 ratio) to re-establish Sphagnum cover; it is now Canada's regulation-mandated peat-restoration standard and has been transferred to South America, Japan, Australia and Europe.

Peer-reviewed eddy-covariance studies at the 11 ha Bois-des-Bel demonstration site (restored from 1999) found the bog regained net CO2-sink function during the growing season within about a decade of restoration, though full peat-forming (acrotelm) function and long-term carbon accumulation take longer — modelling suggests up to 20 years — and early post-restoration years saw elevated carbon export from decomposing mulch.