Taking Dartmoor’s peatlands to London
Last week myself (Chloe 👋), Justine our Communications Officer, and Jonny one of our Project Officers represented the SWPP at an event aimed at providing an educational and interactive experience to young people from inner London by setting up a farm environment in the heart of the city.
Taking place at Providence House Youth Club in Clapham, the Farm2City event also hosted Shallowford Farm, Farming in Protected Landscapes, Dartmoor National Park Authority, Foundation for Common Land, Butterfly Conservation London, Red Tractor, Art and Energy and Wandsworth & Richmond Council. Whilst visiting, children were able to interact with a range of livestock, talk to Dartmoor farmers, learn about the history of common land, discover why butterflies are important pollinators, experience the sense of Dartmoor National Park, uncover the super powers of sphagnum mosses and much more.
Jonny, Project Officer, explaining how healthy functioning peatlands help to slow the flow of water, with sphagnum mosses acting as a water-retaining sponge. Image: Katherine Koster-Shadbolt, DNPA
Providence House Youth Club has been running for 60 years as a safe space, a support network and community for young people in the Wandsworth area. To continue enhancing this sense of community and self-worth, the founders purchased Shallowford Farm, a hill farm located in Dartmoor. Regular trips began where young people could immerse themselves in nature whilst learning new skills and helping to engage them in the need for action in the future of nature and our planet.
The Farm2City 2023 event built on this by providing a unique opportunity for children to access the wild spaces of Dartmoor for themselves and experience the beauty, the sounds, the textures…. and the smells! With over 2,000 people of all ages through the door, SWPP had the opportunity to chat with groups of children from Reception through to Year 8, along with their teachers. We brought with us a Bog in the Box complete with sundews, cotton grasses and sphagnum, extra sphagnum moss for the children to squeeze and smell, peat for them to prod and poke, and an interactive display showing how healthy peatlands help to slow the flow of water, underpinning flood mitigation and water quality. Most of the children weren’t aware of peat initially but having seen it for themselves, soon understood that just like trees, peat helps provide many benefits for people, wildlife and the planet.
Schoolchildren learning about peatlands with a bog in the box, complete with sphagnum, sundews and cotton grasses. Image: Katherine Koster-Shadbolt, DNPA
Children at the event getting stuck in squeezing out water from the sphagnum mosses with help from Chloe, Project Assistant. Image: Katherine Koster-Shadbolt, DNPA
Overall, the event was hugely rewarding and ran successfully with no livestock escaping! It was clear from the people we met that the event was hugely beneficial and more importantly, fun. If a few more people know what peat is now and the huge amounts that healthy peatlands can do for climate change, wildlife and the population, then we did our job!
- Chloe Hurst, Project Assistant
If you’re interested in chatting about getting the South West Peatland Partnership along to your event to share the importance of peatlands, please get in touch here.