LOCATION AND GEOLOGICAL DATA OF THE PEAT BOGS

Located at the head of the Lecrín Valley (el Valle de Lecrín), forming a continuity within the protected Natural Area, is the only important endorheic wetland in the province. The Padul wetland is the largest peat bog on reeds known in southern Europe, whose flood basin has its tectonic origin in crustal movements (the Padul trench is part of the Neogene-Quaternary Depressions) and was gradually filled with layers of peaty sediments. The initial large lagoon, which was inhabited by the southernmost known populations of woolly mammoths in the Middle Pleistocene (40-30 thousand years ago), was radically transformed by agricultural activity in the 18th century, being completely drained by a network of drainage channels ("madres") which now divert the water into the River Dúrcal.

There were two peat farms in the area, of which the Agia farm remains, in the south-western part of the wetland, and following the end of activity of the Aguadero peat bog (where the famous remains of two mammoths were found at the end of the 1970s and beginning of the 1980s), the basin has been flooding for the last 12 years, creating an impressive lagoon.

The exploitation of the Turbera continued until it was stopped in 2010, because it was no longer profitable and was destroying the Padul wetland amidst the complacency of the administrations of the Sierra Nevada National Park and the Provincial Delegation of the Environment.

Numerous endemic species can be found here, such as the hyberian spadefoot toad, the melanopsis, the pseudoamnicola, the hypericum tridactyl skink and the northern stonechat, all of which will be included in this project.

https://www.adurcal.com/enlaces/mancomunidad/geodiversidad/padul.htm 

www.juntadeandalucia.es/medioambiente/portal/web/ventanadelvisitante/detalle-buscador-mapa/-/asset_publisher/Jlbxh2qB3NwR/content/humedales-y-turberas-de-padul-2 

www.adurcal.com/enlaces/cultura/zona/historia/padul/aguas/TurberasdePadul/index.htm