MoorLife 2020: tackling bare peat

We tackled over half a square kilometre (54.5ha) of bare peat in the South Pennine Moors Special Area of Conservation as part of MoorLIFE 2020’s conservation work.

Using heather brash to stabilise, and then adding a mix of lime, seed and fertiliser to revegetate, the aim is for these areas to eventually return to healthy, peat-forming blanket bog.

We measured the nutrient levels and pH of the peat. If the conditions were right we refrained from applying lime or fertiliser. This approach avoids spending money where it is not needed and avoids applying unnecessary fertiliser, making the most out of our funding.