The winter months have been busy for the team at Moors for the Future Partnership, with lots of work spanning peatland restoration, research and management. Here Emma Downes from the Peak District National Park gives us a quick round up of all the activity:
Over 4,450 dams installed this winter
Over 4,450 dams have been installed and 4,260 bags of heather brash spread on moorland in the Peak District National Park and South Pennines over the winter months.
In total 22 km of gullies have been blocked and 21 ha of bare peat covered. In addition 33,600 handfuls of Sphagnum have been harvested and planted, and 130,000 Sphagnum plugs have been planted.
During this time we have also seen 1500 m of stone flagged footpaths laid. That’s almost 600 tonnes of flag stones flown and then laid by hand to protect the peat beneath.
Natural Flood Risk Management
As part of our on-going research into the impact of moorland restoration on flooding further downstream the Moors for the Future Partnership is getting involved in a number of consultation and design projects looking at Natural Flood Risk Management options for at-risk sites.
Land Management Team
The winter season has also seen the start of land management works on approximately 155 ha of land on the National Trust Peak District Estate.
The woodland management work is intended to create the conditions for new native upland oak-birch woodlands to grow. Over the next 10 years this will lead to approximately 155,000 trees growing, achieved by a combination of tree planting, seeding and natural regeneration.
Visit from IUCN UK Peatland Programme
The team from Moors for the Future Partnership meet up with staff and partners from the IUCN UK Peatland Programme to illustrate some of the challenges they faced and work achieved since the programme began. A quick catch up and look at maps near the team's office in Edale was followed by a discussion over lunch and a trip out to see some of the work on the National Trust's Marsden Moor Estate. Here much of the bare peat has been re-vegetated with very encouraging results.
