Battle to save Yorkshire’s peat moors

Mar 20 2010 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

THERE’S a huge battle being waged on Huddersfield’s moors.

Damaged peatlands are leaking as much carbon into the atmosphere each year as the emissions of 350,000 households, according to an audit of the habitat by Natural England.

The Government’s conservation agency carried out an assessment of the extent and condition of English peatlands – including the Pennine moors above Huddersfield – and found that almost three-quarters of deep peat areas in the country are now damaged or degraded.

But there are rescue efforts under way.

Yorkshire Water, which owns huge tracts of moorland above Holmfirth, are working hard to help nature restore the balance.

They are making great progress in the mission to restore large swathes of moorland across the Pennines back to their former glory.

One project has seen helicopter crews fly in huge bundles of heather to replant the moors.

Working in partnership with Natural England as well as Moors for The Future and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Yorkshire Water’s rural estate team has managed to restore or agree on the restoration of 86% of its Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). That’s equivalent to 9,800 hectares of some of the UK’s most ecologically important land.

Yorkshire Water’s land and programme manager, Mike Pearson, said: “While the problems were not of our making, a significant amount of money, time and effort has gone into improving our SSSIs since 2003.