Restoration

Timber sediment traps in place on Cray Moss.

Cray Moss timber sediment traps © Ceri Katz

Restoration

Yorkshire Peat Partnership has a long history of working with a range of local and national contractors to deliver capital works. Special machinery is used, such as low ground pressure diggers with a smaller pressure per cm2 than a human foot.

1,844 km of eroding grips blocked
181 km of eroding gullies blocked
1,687 km of grips repofiled
Image of blocked grips © Matt Cross

Grip blocking © Matt Cross

Grip blocking

Grips are channels that were cut into peatlands in an attempt to drain them for agriculture. A key target of this project is to restore the hydrology to that found in actively peat-forming blanket bogs. A range of materials are used to block these grips depending on the grip type.Over 1,800 kilometres of grips and gullies have been blocked by Yorkshire Peat Partnership so far (more than distance from Skipton to St Tropez).

Image of peat slope reprofiling in progress © Tessa Levens

Reprofiling in progress © Tessa Levens

Reprofiling

Grazing, draining and burning on peatlands can lead to steep erosion features on exposed peat. The steeper the angle of an erosion feature, the faster it erodes. Yorkshire Peat Partnership works to make these angles shallower and apply a range of supporting materials to limit further erosion.

Image of vegetation etsablishing on restored peatland © Rosie Snowden

Revegetating © Rosie Snowden

Revegetating

Areas of bare peat are vulnerable to further erosion, oxidisation and release of greenhouse gases. It is vital to revegetate these areas to reduce further damage to peatlands. Yorkshire Peat Partnership does this through a range of methods such as applying a mulch of heather brash, planting cotton grass and sphagnum moss plugs.

108 ha of bare peat and micro erosion re-vegetated
93,850 sphagnum clumps inoculating 404 ha of bare peat
12,475 plugs of cottongrass planted

Hear more about peatlands and our work on our bogcasts page.