Before any restoration works take place, the SWPP Restoration Officers, Monitoring Team and Historic Environment Officers carry out a large body of work to compile restoration plans for each site. These extensive documents contain details of site ecology, historic environment, landscape, access, land management, ditch blocking areas, timings and costs.

All restoration plans are consulted by and agreed upon by appropriate government bodies, landowners, farmers and commoners if needed, following sector guidance and best practice for working on peatlands.

By working in partnership, organisations in the SWPP can bring their expertise to this stage of the process, giving insights and guidance on everything from bird life to local hydrology, traditional farming methods and past restoration approaches. This is invaluable in ensuring planned works are well-rounded for the benefit of people, wildlife and the climate.

Each site is different when it comes to the methods employed to rewet areas of degraded peat. The extent of degradation, size of drainage ditches, access routes, depth and quality of peat remaining, land use, topography of the area and local historic environment features all play a part in deciding the approaches or combination of techniques used on a site.

Peat itself is often used to block small ditches and peat cuttings. The low-impact digger scoops and packs peat into a ditch, covering it with removed vegetation. Shallow pools of water then often form behind the block to the base of the previous one, maintaining a high water table and preventing any erosion from overflowing water. In time, these pools are then often colonised by Sphagnum mosses, key species in retaining water on the bog during dry spells, sustaining waterlogged acidic soil, slowing decomposition and promoting active peat build up.

Larger blocks in ditches or erosion gullies may be created from untreated timber, wooden planks, heather bales or stone, often then covered in peat and vegetation to blend the works into the landscape and ensure passes for livestock.

Restoration works are carried out between August and April to avoid the ground-nesting bird season.

Our team of three Historic Environment Officers are integral in the entire process of restoration works from start to finish.

Using LIDAR, historic records, aerial images, site visits and ground-truthing assessments, the past of peatlands is put at the forefront at all steps of restoration. This includes anything from ensuring standing stones are excluded from areas of ditch blocking to reducing the impact of machinery on 16th century tin streaming works.

Our work aims not only to protect and preserve the historic environment, but continues to fund and commission new research and landscape survey projects. These include palaeoecological investigations that have lead to new discoveries, enhancing our understanding of upland archaeology and landscape change through time.

It’s vital that peatland restoration methods go hand-in-hand with an extensive monitoring programme. This helps us to understand the impact of approaches, find what works best for peat and nature, assess links between restoration and local land use and learn lessons that can be shared across the sector.

Traditional monitoring methods such as transects and control areas are complemented by the use of drone imagery, remote sensing and technology like livestock-tracking equipment. In partnership with SWPP organisations, monitoring stations to measure water levels, water quality, flow rates and greenhouse gas fluxes are spread across Dartmoor, Exmoor and Cornwall. Species recording also takes place to give an insight into changes in any diversity of bugs, birds and bog plants on the moor.

Taken together alongside the work of citizen science volunteers, these approaches help our Monitoring Team and Restoration Officers to build up a comprehensive picture of the state of the moors, learn the impact of restoration techniques and inform future methodologies.

The role of contractors are key in bringing SWPP restoration plans and our vision of healthy, hydrologically functioning peatlands to life.

Conservation-focussed contractors carry out the physical works on the ground, using the latest equipment and machinery that increases efficiency and reduces environmental impact. In fact, in order to avoid sinking into the peat and exert minimal extra impact, some of the diggers used out on the moor amazingly exert less pressure on the ground than a human may.

Out in nearly all weathers, these teams know how to shape the landscape to raise the water table locally, reducing the flow of water off these areas long term. They are also play a crucial role in our work to enhance and protect the historic environment, acting as an extra line of defence should there be any artefacts discovered in the peat as they work, and so halting or adapting work accordingly.

We’re always welcome to chatting with contractors specialising in practical works, ecology and the historic environment across the UK’s South West who would be interested in working with us, and are interested in having conversations with companies who may want to work with us going forward. Please feel free to contact us to discuss.