Test 2
What’s so special about peatlands?
A unique habitat
Peatlands are home to some amazing and beautiful wildlife: including many species of sphagnum moss, the carnivorous sundew plant, hare’s tail cottongrass, curlew, short eared owl, adder and common lizard.
How have they been used and damaged?
The effect of draining peatlands for agriculture
In the 50s and 60s, the Government paid land managers to drain blanket bog to improve the land for sheep grazing
Narrow drainage channels called ‘grips’ were dug to drain water from the fells.
Drying out the peatlands killed off the plants that live on the surface of the peat, exposing it to erosion by wind and rain.
This led to formation of deep channels (known as gullies), and steep faces of bare peat (hags), driving the formation of areas of bare peat leading into a vicious cycle of further erosion.
How is Yorkshire Peat Partnership repairing and restoring these habitats?
The tools of our trade
Planning our approach to restoring damaged blanket bogs starts with site surveys. We conduct both desk-based and field surveys. Aerial photos used in our surveys are often provided by our in-house UAV pilots. Using handheld GPS mappers, we categorise all the features of a site, including vegetation, damage and peat depths. Yorkshire Peat Partnership’s expanding team has already surveyed nearly 59,800 hectares using these methods.
How is Yorkshire Peat Partnership repairing and restoring these habitats?
Transforming the landscape
Restoring damaged blanket bogs focuses on interventions that reduce the loss of water and through blocking drainage channels and re-establishing key vegetation species that play a vital role in holding water in the peatlands and covering bare peat.
Yorkshire Peat Partnership works with specialists to block grips and gullies with peat, coir, wood and stone dams, and plant sphagnum mosses and cottongrasses.