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The Curraghs or Ballaugh Curraghs are a wetland in Ballaugh parish in the north-west of the Isle of Man. The area has a rich and varied biodiversity and is also the location of the Curraghs Wildlife Park, a zoo and nature reserve that incorporates the wetlands. == History == During the Ice Age the area was covered in sheets of ice. When this ice retreated, a depression was left at the bottom of the Northern Hills and the wetlands were formed in this basin. Over the years the land has been used to graze animals and grow hay, one of the few exploitable crops suited to the conditions of the wetlands. The Curraghs has also been a valuable resource for humans, as well as providing aesthetic appeal; the area is rich in peat, which was used as a fuel in the island's homes. The nearby town of Kirk Michael was a great consumer of the peat in the Curraghs. It was the exploitation of peat that made the land slightly drier than it is today. When the practice of peat cutting was discontinued, the ditches in the area filled with water and bogs were formed. In the 1930s, the Manx government intended to make a profit by growing New Zealand flax on the Curraghs. This plan failed, but in the 1950s the government pressed ahead with another plan to drain the Curraghs, so that the area could be extensively farmed. However, with the land 15 m above sea level, it was decided that it was not economically viable to drain the wetlands. The 1963 much of the area came under control of the Manx government, and two years later, the Curraghs Wildlife Park was opened. In 1990, protection of the government-controlled area was transferred to the Manx National Heritage; and in 2006 193 hectares of the Curragh became a designated Ramsar site, an organisation devoted to conserving important areas of wetland worldwide.〔(BBC - Isle of Man - Nature of Britain - What would the Island be without the Curraghs? )〕 〔Joint Nature Nonservation Committee (2006) Information Sheet on Ramsar wetlands, (), available from: www.jncc.gov.uk/pdf/RIS/UK21001.pdf (Accessed 8 April 2009)〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Curraghs」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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