Dangers from global warming locked up in tracts of moorland

Over the last three years the North York Moors National Park Authority has overseen a programme of work to restore moorland areas but in a report park authority officials says there is still work to be done and “as yet no means of further assessment or restoration of these areas has been identified.”

Leading environmental experts have claimed that improving the management of upland peat bogs could reduce greenhouse gas pollution by up to 400,000 tonnes per year, the equivalent of removing two per cent of cars from England’s roads. A report to be considered by members of the North York Moors National Park Authority says over 2,392 hectares of moorland were identified where erosion, gripping or gullying was present. Restoration works have been carried out on 1,698 hectares in the park over the three years - but more work still needs doing.

Rona Charles, ecologist with the North York Moors National Park, said yesterday it was possible that more money would be found for future projects but said: “We are all having to work in an atmosphere where funding is not cut and dried.”

She said of potential supporters: “none of them I think under estimate the importance of peatland communities.

“Protecting them is a global priority.

“This has been a significant project and its something that the National Park has been concerned about for some time.

“It has done a lot of good work, it has not finished the job but its done a large amount of work.

“Some work may be carried out in the future,” she added.

As part of the three-year project a number of schemes have been carried out at sites across the North York Moors and the report says: “a significant amount of important peat conservation work has been achieved.”

The report adds: “The works completed have tackled the most critical of eroding peatland sites in the National Park. These sites will require continued monitoring and some remedial action may be necessary to ensure that beneficial impact of the initial work is not lost.”

It says work still needs doing, to tackle small scale but widespread erosion in gullies and grips.

The report will be discussed be members of the park authority when they meet on Monday.

Over the past 10,000 years, vast swathes of Yorkshire’s moorlands have kept tonnes of carbon locked away in their peat soils.

However experts have previously revealed decaying organic matter amassed in moorland since the last Ice Age could now be responsible for releasing catastrophic levels of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Scientists say climate change poses such a grave danger that unprecedented amounts of carbon are being emitted from the soil of moorlands throughout the United Kingdom.

Leading environmental experts have claimed that all of the peatlands in England and Wales would absorb around 41,000 tonnes of carbon a year if kept in a pristine condition, but could emit up to 381,000 tonnes of carbon annually if damaged by practices such as excessive burning, drainage and over-grazing.

Hence, the importance of projects such as the three-year programme in the North York Moors. At Glaisdale Moor, restoration work has been carried out, after severe fire damage was found, together with other issues.

Experts say moorlands across the British Isles could be used to help combat global warming. Academics from Durham and Leeds universities have previously pinpointed drainage ditches dug in the 1950s as a major contributor to the deterioration of moorlands, causing carbon emissions to be released from the peat soils.

The ditches were created in a failed attempt to improve land quality for grazing, and now actually pose a danger to livestock. Farmers have been urged to block off the ditches to capture more moisture in the soil and enable the peat to store more carbon.