Huge area of peatland is restored

Around 100 square miles of the county’s precious peatlands have been restored in a multi-million pound project to preserve vital habitats and reduce damaging carbon emissions.
PeatlandsPeatlands
Peatlands

The achievement is a significant milestone for the Yorkshire Peat Partnership (YPP) because it means nearly a quarter of Yorkshire’s damaged peatlands have been restored.

Its work has also allowed for an estimated 29,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide to be stored naturally; the equivalent to the amount of carbon produced annually by 62,000 UK households.

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Dr Tim Thom, the project’s programme manager, said: “Helping to restore more than a quarter of Yorkshire’s peatlands is a significant achievement – not only does 
it ensure that rare and precious wildlife is protected but safeguards iconic peatland landscapes for us all to enjoy.”

Peatlands are known to support specialised Sphagnum moss species and sundew plants, and attract short-eared owls, golden plovers and common lizards.

Since 2009, more than £5m has been spent restoring peat by the partnership, most of which had been provided by Natural England through its Environmental Stewardship Scheme. The scale of the project is unprecedented in Yorkshire.

A key focus of the project has been in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. More than 60 per cent of the restoration work has been carried out there as it is particularly rich in the habitat in which peat is formed, blanket bog. The Dales has more blanket bog than any other National Park in England. These bogs are often a feature of upland landscapes.

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Dr Thom said: “The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA) has provided financial, practical and logistical support throughout the project, without which the YPP would not have reached the 100 square mile restoration milestone.”

Private landowners and gamekeepers were playing key roles too, he said.

“The knowledge, assistance and expertise of landowners, gamekeepers and farmers have underpinned the successful delivery of every peatland restoration project that we have completed.”

Jackie Smith, Natural England’s lead advisor for the Dales, said the work so far had been a tremendous accomplishment for habitat restoration, as well as helping improve the region’s drinking water quality by reducing sedimentation from peat flushed into reservoirs by surface run-off and increasing carbon sequestration. She said Natural England identified that more than half of Yorkshire’s moorland Sites of Special Scientific Interest land urgently required peatland restoration and, to date, 39 per cent of this land has been restored.

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Dr Thom hopes the project will continue to successfully help restore some of the remaining damaged blanket bog in the region.

He added: “What we would really like to see is YPP reach the 20,000 hectares restoration mark, helping to restore and preserve nearly 50 per cent of Yorkshire’s valuable peatlands.”

The YPP is an umbrella organisation led by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and funded by Natural England, the Environment Agency, Yorkshire Water and the YDNPA. It is supported by North Yorkshire Moors National Park Authority, National Trust, Pennine Prospects, Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust, National Farmers’ Union and the Moorland Association.