New season of peatland work begins on Dartmoor
The South West Peatland Partnership is gearing up to start its 2025/26 peatland restoration season on Dartmoor, continuing work to restore and protect the peat of this globally significant landscape.
This season’s work will focus on several key and remote sites across Dartmoor where degraded peatlands will have their damaged natural hydrology improved. Blocking erosion channels that take water off the moors will help to reduce carbon loss, improve water quality, and diversify the species of birds and insects that breed and thrive on these areas.
George Kohler, SWPP senior restoration officer who worked on the planning and consultation of several sites, shared the increasingly timely and urgent need for the large-scale works to take place:
“The past year has shown us how important peatland restoration is. It can’t wait. Fires on peatlands, and record-breaking rainfall over short periods combined with long periods of dry weather all take their toll.
We need to get Dartmoor’s peatlands as healthy and resilient to the changing climate as we can now, to benefit us all in the coming years. More and more research continues to show how peat bogs are a crucial habitat in need of restoration. This work improves wildlife habitat, helps to store water, reduces erosion and carbon loss into streams and rivers, and provides water sources for moorland livestock.
Working through the autumn and winter helps us to protect nesting bird species. We’re well prepared for the weather that a Dartmoor winter throws our way. You may spot our specialised low-pressure machines out on the moor this season, helping to stop ongoing erosion and crucially hold back water to raise that water table in the peat.”
Martin Gillard, SWPP Historic Environment Officer shares the importance of upland areas on our collective cultural and historical record:
“Healthy peat keeps a record of human interactions with our environment and the climate dating back over thousands of years; if we let the peat dry out or erode away, we risk losing that information.
In my role working with SWPP project officers and contractors I ensure that historic features are protected during the restoration works and carry out or commission surveys and studies that add to our knowledge of Dartmoor and its peatlands.”
Quantock & Exmoor Ltd, one of the experienced teams of contractors who works with SWPP on the practical peatland restoration work are heading back out onto the moor with their machinery in August:
"Dartmoor's degraded peatland's are part of a beautiful and historic landscape. Each season our operatives work closely with SWPP through fog, rain and snow to combat erosion, raise the water table and preserve this vital habitat.
Our specialised low ground pressure machinery has been developed for this delicate and demanding environment, and we are proud to work with the dedicated team at SWPP to restore our degraded peatlands."
The SWPP aims to restore hundreds of hectares of degrading peat each year across Dartmoor, Exmoor and Cornwall, supporting national targets of peatland restoration. The work is being delivered in partnership with local contractors, landowners and organisations, and is supported by funding from Natural England’s Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme, South West Water, Duchy of Cornwall, Environment Agency and National Trust.