A million pound project to restore our fragile but valuable peat moorlands is taking off!

Yorkshire Water is leading a two-year project to restore peat landscapes on Wessenden Moor, above Meltham, and Buckstones and Close Moss, above Marsden.

Peat uplands not only provide a habitat for endangered plants and animals but they absorb huge amounts of CO2 making them essential for tackling climate change.

The uplands are also the source of 45% of drinking water in Yorkshire, says Yorkshire Water.

But 200 years of industrialisation has damaged swathes of these essential areas, some of which have been washed away entirely.

The disappearance of these areas is not only affecting climate change but is degrading Tykes’ drinking water, Yorkshire Water catchment manager Andrew Walker says.

Mr Walker is leading a £9m project to restore peat moorlands in the county. The project, which runs from 2013 to 2015, covers 320 hectares of Wessenden Moor and 211 hectares of Buckstones and Close Moss.

Longwood Treatment Works, which processes the water which drains from the moors, is having to deal with increased amount of soil in the water.

Mr Walker said: “We can’t keep building energy-intensive treatment works. We have a responsibility towards our environment.”

The project, run with help from the National Trust, has led to the building of 1,021 stone dams, 10 timber dams, and 229 plastic dams to prevent peat being washed away on Wessenden Moor.

Helicopters have also being spreading lime fertiliser on the moors and will later be dropping off bits of heather to provide habitats for upland dwelling plants and animals.

Yorkshire Water hopes to install 1,848 heather dams before they move onto the National Trust-owned Marsden Moor Estate.

While peat uplands may be fragile they are relatively easy to regrow, Mr Walker says.

He said: “There’s been a project like this in the Peak District and it works quite simply, even though there’s plenty of science behind it...

“Degraded peat doesn’t recover unless you give it a helping hand. But once you start it, it really grows back.”