South West Peatland Partnership’s award-winning restoration work featured on Countryfile.

Sunday 19 January | 6pm | BBC One

Dartmoor’s water-holding, carbon-storing, wildlife-supporting, history havens coming soon to Countryfile.

On a cold, crisp and windy day in December, the SWPP team and Countryfile jumped into our 4x4s and headed up to one of our latest peatland restoration sites on beautiful North Dartmoor.

In the episode, Joe Crowley visits the Woodland Trust’s restoration work at nearby Fingle Woods, following along with their project to remove conifers and bring back native trees and wildlife. A few miles away, Joe then spent the day with the South West Peatland Partnership team, putting that milled wood to use constructing one of a series of wooden blocks in an eroding channel, as part of our work to slow the flow of water, raise and stabilise the local water table and restore our dried and degrading peat bogs.

Catch up on IPlayer to see restoration in action, winter on Dartmoor in all its glory, and those working together to make a difference to the future of these important spaces. The many benefits of peatland restoration are seen: employing people in diverse, practical, landscape roles, investing in local sustainable materials, and leaving a lasting impact for wildlife, water and the climate.

Working in partnership

Holistic peatland restoration requires a whole range of funders, staff-hosters, researchers, volunteers, contractors, landowners, farmers and commoners to all work together to achieve a lasting impact. Across Dartmoor, Exmoor and Cornwall, we’re working together with science-informed approaches and local materials to help restore over 2,000 hectares of degrading peatland. We also work with restoration projects across the UK to share our findings and the most effective ways to make a difference.

Funded by:

  • The power of peatlands.

    Covering just 3% of Earth’s surface, peatlands have a profound impact on our planet, regulating and filtering water, providing wildlife habitat, benefiting farming and acting as natural archives of archaeological and cultural heritage.

    But without action, this is being lost. 87% of England’s peatlands are currently dried, degrading and eroding. We’re working to slow the flow of water, reduce erosion to the peat and create the conditions needed for peat to begin to form once more.

    Why peatlands are degrading

  • Climate action beneath our feet.

    2025 has only just started, and the news is already full of record-breaking temperatures, fires, floods, and life-changing impacts on those people least able to adapt.

    We’re taking positive climate action through our work. Peatlands are the world’s largest land carbon store, holding more carbon than all the world’s forests combined. Keeping that store in the ground and peatlands wet and healthy is essential for climate change mitigation locally and worldwide.

    The importance of peatlands

  • Get involved!

    Our band of brilliant volunteers played a vital role in 2024 helping us to scatter sphagnum mosses, measure peat growth, maintain access routes, research historic features and monitor dragonfly populations benefiting from our work.


    To learn more about volunteering this year to help make a difference to the peatlands of Cornwall, Dartmoor and Exmoor, please take a look at the range of desk-based and out-and-about roles available.

    Volunteer opportunities

Morag, SWPP Manager

It was a chilly but very enjoyable and interesting day of filming with the Countryfile team. It is fantastic for the SWPP to be featured in this programme, allowing us to showcase the work of the partnership to a national audience and share the story of where our timber comes from.

Hopefully this will bring these amazing habitats to life so we can get even more people appreciating and enjoying them as much as I do.

It is incredibly exciting to have our work featured on a reputable TV programme like Countryfile.

It highlights the gravitas of our work, and allows us to contribute to a wider message of hope around efforts to conserve and enhance our natural habitats.

On a more personal level, the experience provided a real behind-the-scenes insight into this fantastic programme, and is a huge career highlight for me.

Jonny, SWPP Restoration Officer

If you love history, plants, peatlands and wildlife, follow the SWPP team’s day-to-day out on Dartmoor, Bodmin Moor, West Penwith & Exmoor on Instagram, LinkedIn or Facebook, or take a look at our varied volunteering opportunities here.

🐤How we mitigate our impact on nesting birds, with 11 days left until the end of our restoration season. In the South West, SWPP practical works out on the moors and mires are specifically scheduled to avoid the breeding bird season between April
Peatland restoration works are now well underway at Ham Allotment, near Dunkery Beacon on Exmoor. This area, owned by the National Trust and tenanted by a local hill farmer, is designated a Principal Archaeological Landscape for a combination of well
Chetsford Water on Exmoor is a key site for us as we continue our work to restore peatlands at sites across Dartmoor, Exmoor & Cornwall. This is one of SWPP's smallest sites this restoration season, at only 2 hectares, but its location and the po
Are you a student passionate about the environment and looking for hands-on work experience in peatland restoration and conservation? If so, applications are now open to join us for a practical five-day work experience for 14-18 year olds taking plac
Would you like to take a walk with us on Dartmoor this March? We've got a limited number of places available to come and take a look at our work underway. The visits will be held at one of our peatland restoration sites near Princetown for the mornin
Over the past few months, we have been working in the Cranmere area of North Dartmoor to block erosion features, diversify habitat for wildlife, raise and stabilise the local water table, and create the conditions needed to allow important carbon-ric
If you're walking south of Princetown, you might spot the low-ground pressure diggers at work now on Tor Royal Bog. Continuing into March, we're working with experienced contractors to prevent further erosion of, and restore the hydrological function
Works continue at Tavy Head on Dartmoor, our largest site to date. Here's just a few photos from contractors and SWPP staff out and about, helping to restore the degrading peat on this remote part of the moor. 1: Up to 9 low-ground pressure diggers
Today is #WorldWetlandsDay and also means we have only 2 months left of our practical restoration season in the South West. Here's an area of very new peatland restoration on Exmoor in the January sunshine, already doing a brilliant job slowing the