One of the biggest moorland conservation programmes in Europe

The MoorLIFE project is an EU LIFE+ project and will restore habitats of European significance. It will also have key benefits for communities on both sides of the Pennines in terms of improved landscape; water quality and diversity of upland plants, birds, mammals and insects.

By 2015 more than 2,000 acres of Peak District and South Pennine moorland will be restored.

The £5.5 million MoorLIFE project is protecting active blanket bog by restoring bare and eroding peat in the South Pennine Moors Special Area of Conservation and Special Protection Area.

The blanket bog in this area has been severely damaged by

• pollution from the industrial revolution
• wild fires
• erosion from wind and rain

MoorLIFE is working to stop the areas of bare peat from getting any bigger.

The blanket bogs are home to many important birds including the endangered twite (or Pennine finch). Peat-forming Sphagnum moss, which has nearly disappeared from this area due to industrial pollution and wildfires, and other key upland plants - heather, cottongrass, bilberry, crowberry and cloudberry - will be introduced.

Much of the water for the North of England comes from the Pennine moors. Our work helps keep water cleaner by preventing peat sediment getting into reservoirs.

Monitoring

Throughout the MoorLIFE work we will collect evidence of the impact of the conservation work. We have installed hundreds of manual dipwells to record the change in water level and 2-metre square plots to monitor changes in vegetation cover and type of plants.

The areas covered by this project are:

• Turley Holes (near Mytholmroyd)
• Rishworth Common (near Risthworth)
• Black Hill (near Holmfirth)
• Bleaklow (near Glossop)