A £5.5 MILLION conservation project is under way in the Peak District
to restore pollution-ravaged areas of peat moorland. Work is being
carried out by Moors for the Future, a partnership led by the Peak
District National Park Authority.
Funding has come from a range of bodies, including Yorkshire Water,
the National Trust, Derbyshire Council, Sheffield Council, the RSPB and
the Environment Agency.
A team from environmental consultants Wildscapes has been involved in
the latest phase of the work, one of the biggest conservation projects
ever undertaken in the UK. The scheme aims to return 1an area of badly
damaged peat moorland to a healthy condition and to protect a much
larger area.
Polluted air has been killing off the plants that keep the moors
healthy. Overgrazing, summer wildfires and the weather have also
contributed to a management problem that, in large moorland areas,
cannot be tackled by one organisation alone.
The partnership’s mission statement is to secure the legacy of 8,000
years of moorland life and ultimately to vastly increase the number and
diversity of mosses and moorland plants that provide the basis for an
important ecosystem.
Wildscapes was selected to deliver the latest phase of work because
of their local knowledge of the delicate moorlands, as well as their
heather and moorland restoration skills which have been developed from
past initiatives, including the Coalfield Heathlands project as well as
work for the National Trust.
Their efforts will help stabilise bare peat in some of the most
damaged areas of moorland, including Kinder Scout, Bleaklow and
Saddleworth, near Manchester.
