A wonderland of lakes, walks and forests has been created by Bord na Mona on a large tract of cutaway bogland just off the main Birr-Tullamore road in Co Offaly.
And what is happening on the Lough Boora Parklands, 5,000 acres of cutaway bog near Ferbane, could well determine the landscape of the midlands after the peat has been extracted.
The board owns 200,000 acres of midland bog, 80,000 acres in Co Offaly. More than 2,500 acres which have been worked to a point where no more peat can be extracted, called cutaway bogs, are becoming available every year.
What happens to a cutaway bog is largely determined by rock formation and drainage quality. According to Mr Gerry McNally, the board's land development manager, these will determine whether the cutaway tracts will be used for grassland or forestry or turned into a new wilderness.
"The teachers of Ireland have a lot to answer for because when we were growing up they told us there was a huge tract of bog in the middle of Ireland called the Bog of Allen, and it was just all bog," he said.
"What they neglected to mention was that there were towns, communities, farms and different kinds of soil and bog types in this large area. Even in the same unit of bogland, there are differing types of bog and little islands of drained land which are farmed quite successfully by people down the generations.
"On the cutaway bogs we have arrived back to the pre-glacial age before the bogs were laid down, and in a way we are reshaping the landscape from where it was over 5,000 years ago."
Research by the board has shown that 30 per cent of cutaway bog could be used for the creation of wetlands, the rest for forestry or grassland.
Lough Boora Parkland has become a blueprint for what can be created from under a bog, a wonderful beauty born from what some might see as a terrible destruction.
"We have a blueprint here for what we can do with the cutaway as it becomes available. There is tremendous potential for recreational use."
He said the work had been accomplished with the support of EU structural funding and a lot of co-operation from locals and many organisations, such as the fisheries board and LEADER groups.
"Here we are demonstrating what can be done with areas which are not suitable for grassland or forestry, and it is a blueprint for the future," he said.
There are two approaches adopted at Lough Boora to wetlands.
On one area, at Turraun, 250 acres is being allowed, with minimum management, to revert to nature. Some of the area was flooded to create a habitat for birds and native woodland. Wildflowers have sprung up, creating a botanists' heaven.
The bee orchid, which most botanists have never seen growing, is there in a concentration not found anywhere else in the country.
"We really don't know where they came from but they were certainly not growing in the bog there. It is just one of the wonderful things which have happened here," said Mr Tom Egan, assistant land development manger.
"In 1991, we raised an embankment along the lower side of the bog and closed off the gravity drainage system. Part of the area flooded by rainwater and springs has become a haven for birdlife in particular."
He said one of the most encouraging things has been the way local people, especially the people of the village of Pollagh, had co-operated with the development. "This was particularly true of the local gun clubs and hunters who had been shooting there for many years when the bog was being worked.
"We came along after what was effectively 30 years and asked the locals to stop hunting because of what we were attempting to do in relation to wildlife and they co-operated fully with us."
The Turraun site is the breeding ground of the few remaining grey partridge which needs the unique habitat to survive.
The rest of the amenity development has taken place about two miles from Turraun at Finnamore, an area along the Tullamore-Cloghan road. Two deep lakes, with the wetlands between, have become one of the focal points of the area.
At Boora itself, another wetland has been developed by shallow flooding. This wetland was surrounded by a moat to protect birds which like shallow water from predators like foxes.
This area has now become an intensive area for breeding birds, such as the black-headed gull, grebe, mallard, tufted duck, lapwing, ringed plover and redshank. In winter large numbers of whooper swans arrive at Boora, along with mallard, teal, curlew and golden plover.
To facilitate those who want to watch the birds, a special bird hut commands a perfect view over the lake.
The parkland contains six lakes, most of which are stocked with fish and all providing vital habitat for native and wintering birds.
One of these is a two-acre lake which has facilities for disabled anglers and young people. This has been stocked with game and coarse fish. Loch an Dochais was officially opened by the then president, Mrs Mary Robinson, two years ago.
More evidence of the involvement of locals with the development is found here. The lake and its facilities have been leased by the board to Kilcormack Development Association, which runs them.
To the west of this lake a path has been laid to take the curious to a mesolithic (middle Stone Age) site where hunters camped between 7000 BC and 6500 BC, one of the earliest sites found in Ireland.
Excavated by Dr Michael Ryan, of the National Museum, the site yielded tools, arrow heads and axe heads. Some 1,500 artefacts were removed from the site and can now be seen in the National Museum. The discovery of the site caused a debate on how and from where Ireland was first settled.
At weekends, there is activity of a different kind at the Midlands Model Aeroplane site of five acres. Closer to Tullamore, there is the Boora clay pigeon shooting site.
According to Mr Egan, the Lough Boora canoeing course, a 30ft-wide stretch of water which will be two feet deep and three kilometres long, will be ready for action later in the year.
About 800 acres of the site has been developed as grassland and sold back to farmers. Some 1,500 acres has been planted with forestry.
"The hope is that all these amenities will keep people in the area and we can do elsewhere what we have achieved here," said Mr McNally.