And now, Forestry England's Peat Specialist, Richard Guy said: This process will take some time to take full effect, but the development of deep peat takes millennia, so restoration of that peat can’t be rushed.” I spoke to Groundwork’s Project Manager to find out a little more about the restoration project in Northumberland.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 "We got involved with Natural England and we put a bid for a pilot study to look at
00:08 how we can put interventions in, nature recovery interventions, and how they could be measured
00:17 so that we can assess how these improve the amount of carbon capture."
00:21 A major restoration project to restore eight hectares of land to Peat Bog in Harwood Forest
00:26 in Northumberland has been completed. Groundwork NE and Cumbria led the project with the help
00:31 from peat experts at Forestry England after receiving a grant.
00:35 "Forests traditionally were planted on less productive land, less good for agriculture,
00:41 but they planted a lot of forests onto deep peat. We now know that actually draining those
00:47 areas of deep peat is detrimental in that it releases carbon. The peat gradually decomposes
00:56 and it releases carbon into the atmosphere. We need to allow the ground to become waterlogged
01:02 again, so it's about blocking drains, allowing those areas of ground to be restored to healthy
01:09 blanket bog."
01:11 What is peat? Well, it's a surface layer of soil, an accumulation of partially decayed
01:16 vegetation or organic matter. In terms of fighting climate change, peat is reportedly
01:20 one of nature's major weapons.
01:22 "It's very much about future-proofing. It's looking into the future and it's about establishing
01:29 and changing our habitat interventions, so trying to improve our habitats so that they're
01:36 better functioning, they're better able to hold onto carbon and to attack carbon from
01:43 the atmosphere. This is what peatland does. When the vegetation grows, it doesn't decompose
01:52 and release that carbon again. It remains in a waterlogged condition and then gradually,
01:58 over centuries, it accumulates into peat. So it's a really good way of locking up carbon
02:04 for very long periods of time."
02:06 The work and results from the restoration process are to be closely monitored and scrutinised
02:11 by Natural England and Forestry England for the next 10 years in order to chart their
02:16 success. And depending on these results, the project could be replicated on pockets of
02:21 land elsewhere.
02:23 Joe Willis, the administrator of the Ray Wind Fund's CIC Local Initiatives Fund at renewable
02:28 energy company Vattenfall, said "It is exactly this type of project that our fund was set
02:33 up to support, and we're proud to be involved. The fund aims to enhance and preserve the
02:38 natural environment for residents and visitors, and we are excited to see the results of this
02:43 peat restoration project."
02:44 "It will be several years before we actually see the biodiversity return. We may be looking
02:53 at dropping in some sphagnum, so we may go in and help that along its way."