Peat preservation project takes to the air

A HELICOPTER has been used to help restore about 25 hectares of exposed peat at Wemmergill, in Lunedale.
It was touch and go whether the project would be completed in time as wintry weather closed in on the site while work was under way.
The North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Partnership (AONB) began the project last month, but because of the terrain, was forced to airlift more than 180 tonnes of material to the site.
This included stone, bags of heather brash and coir.
AONB ecologist Alistair Lockett said had work not been completed in time, it would have had to be put off until the spring when the helicopter became available again.
As it was, the heavy lifting was done with just hours to spare. The restoration work was carried out with £62,000 of funding from Northumbrian Water.
The peat has been exposed for years and no one is sure about how it happened.
Mr Lockett said: “A lot of times we are not sure. It could be a very old wild fire. It has been like that since they (people in the area) have known.”
He explained that it made sense for Northumbrian Water to be involved in restoring the peat because in years to come they will save on the cost of filtering out the peaty colour of the water they receive from the area.
The 29-year-old said: “It is great for the environment and great for customers. If they spend upstream and in 20 years there will be savings downstream.”
He added that while peaty water would not affect a person’s health, people would be turned off by the brown colour. The restoration work included filling gullies of between nine and ten feet deep with rocks and using the coir – coconut husks – to dam and slow down water.
Heather brash is laid to help regrowth of heather, green and red mosses, and the all important sphagnum moss.
Mr Lockett said transporting materials by land to the site would have created extensive damage to the very environment they were trying to protect and restore.
In another project near Kirkby Stephen, the AONB used the help of a helicopter to deliver mills stones to a remote site along the Coast-to-Coast walking route.
People walking to the famous Nine Standards Rigg were causing extensive damage to the peat. That section of the Coast to Coast route is notoriously wet and boggy.
The laying of the mill stones will make it easier for walkers to access the site and protect the peat from erosion.