Author: Caroline Kreysel

Caroline Kreysel (she/her) is a PhD candidate at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her research focuses on the environmental history of landscapes marked by intensive agriculture in the Netherlands and Brazil. In her research, Caroline foregrounds nonhuman agency and cultural historical perspectives to understand historic land use practices.
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A part of the now protected peatland in the Peel, in which the water was dammed to allow for moss growth.

The Raised Bog Underneath the Farm: Walking into the Past and the Present

Throughout the past 150 years, the Peel underwent drastic changes due to drainage projects, turf-cutting, and animal farming. The new materialities these uses produced can make one almost forget that this used to be a peatland. However, Jeroen, an ornithologist, remarked upon the black waters surrounding grassland areas in the Peel. He argued that in these nutrient poor pools, the peatland was “peeking through” the fabric of the present-day landscape. The multiple pasts of the Peel were still present in the landscape’s materialities.