The Great North Bog is a large restoration initiative covering over 90% of the upland
peatland in the
North of England
Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik, and the ...
. It is a £200m project and aims to restore nearly 7,000 square kilometres of upland over 20 years. It is a partnership between the
North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Partnership, Yorkshire Peat Partnership and the Moors for the Future Partnership. The area covers five national parks — the
Peak District,
Yorkshire Dales,
North York Moors
The North York Moors is an upland area in north-eastern Yorkshire, England. It contains one of the largest expanses of Calluna, heather moorland in the United Kingdom. The area was designated as a national parks of England and Wales, National P ...
,
Lake District
The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...
and
Northumberland.
Ecosystem recovery
Some of the peat is 8000 years old,
and it is thought that about half the peatland needs restoring, by work in the winter.
Much of these
blanket bogs had been drained to graze sheep, this draining was subsidized in the 1950s and 1960s,
and raise
grouse for shooting.
The land is currently managed by sheep farmers and landowners,
and is thought to be losing peat depth at 2.5 cm a year while regrowing at 1 cm per year.
Flood control
Peat is now being washed away down deep channels and during storms the town of
Otley is often flooded via the
River Wharfe
The River Wharfe ( ) is a river in Yorkshire, England originating within the Yorkshire Dales National Park. For much of its middle course it is the county boundary between West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire. Its valley is known as Wharfedale.
...
.
Studies indicate that restoring part of the peatland with stone, wood or
coir dams greatly slowed peak water flow.
Carbon capture
The peatlands currently store 400 million tonnes of carbon.
The project say that damaged peat in the area releases 3.7 million tonnes of carbon annually,
about 1% of
UK greenhouse gas emissions.
The programme includes a restoration and conservation plan which will make a significant contribution to the UK’s
carbon sequestration targets.
[{{Cite web, date=2021-09-12, title=For peat's sake: the race is on to save Britain's disappearing moorland bogs, url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/12/for-peats-sake-the-race-is-on-to-save-britains-disappearing-moorland-bogs, access-date=2021-12-26, website= The Guardian, language=en]
References
Ecological restoration
Land management
Biosequestration
Peatlands
Bogs of England