Patch-up for peat’s sake

A STAGGERING 700 tonnes of crushed stone is being flown to moorland in Saddleworth to help restore damaged peatland.

The project is the brainchild of water company United Utilities and nature conservation charity the RSPB, who are blocking up gullies in two upland areas of blanket bog at Dovestone.

The complicated operation involves manoeuvring a helicopter above the gulley and dropping stone directly on to it.

The UK and Ireland is home to a significant proportion of the world’s blanket bog as the cold and wet climate is ideal for the formation of peat.

However, like many of the UK’s bogs, the ones in the South Pennines and Peak District, which Saddleworth is on the edge of, have been damaged by past industrial air pollution with the peat-building sphagnum mosses having almost completely died out.

Blocking the gullies will help the blanket bog recover by making the land wetter and also slow the flow of water, limiting further erosion of peat soils.

Each of the planned 900-stone gully blocks will hold water back, allowing peat to be re-deposited, vegetation to re-grow and begin the process raising the water table.

Jon Bird, warden at Dovestone, is managing the project.

He said: “Restoring blanket bog is a vital part of our conservation work at Dovestone because it provides so many benefits for both people and wildlife.

“In good condition, the habitat provides a home for wading birds such as golden plovers and dunlins, and special plants such as the insect-eating sundew.
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