Peatland is a wetland habitat with waterlogged soils made of dead and decaying plants.  It’s hugely important as it acts as a carbon store, is a great habitat for wildlife, and can play a vital role in water management.

For centuries, peatland has been cultivated, drained and degraded. Once dry, peat easily erodes and releases carbon dioxide making it one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas.

With greater emphasis on land management for carbon storage, more attention is being paid to the restoration of peatlands. Retaining water, rather than encouraging it to runoff will help restore our peatlands.

Local pockets of peat

Peatlands in the Shropshire Hills have perhaps been overlooked in the past, since they are mainly highly modified (as pasture or forestry) or otherwise small areas of ‘pockety’ peat.

Over the last six months, we have been developing our understanding of local peat deposits and have mapped 3700ha of known peatland (predominantly shallow or soil with peaty pockets), 37 UKSO (UK Soil Observatory) deep peat sites, 9 turbary commons (these are places where peat was once dug), over 800 marsh/mire sites and 2600ha of land that is thought to be predominantly peaty. 

This desk-based exercise has identified peat sites and turbary commons that are not recorded on maps, suggesting the extent of our peat is under recorded. Taken together, we estimate that by area this amounts to 7.8% of the AONB.  

Only a small proportion of this percentage (under 500ha) is in positive management. But there’s potential to restore much more to achieve local carbon capture, link to other priority habitats to help nature recovery and to improve water quality and flood mitigation. 

Project plans

The Defra Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme aims to start the process of restoring 35,000ha of degraded peatland in England up to 2025. We have submitted a bid to the Scheme for an 18-month Discovery Phase which will focus on work to break-down the barriers to peatland restoration and enable us to develop plans for active restoration in the future.

The grant will fund the development of a new Shropshire Hills Peat Partnership, pay for a dedicated Project Officer to engage and consult with landowners about potential restoration projects, and fund the necessary hydrological and ecological surveys which will inform restoration proposals delivered under stage two of the fund.

If our bid is successful the project will begin in November this year and will be a major step forward in the restoration of our most important carbon store. For more information please email Mike.Kelly@shropshire.gov.uk

The eyes of the world will be on the UK in a few weeks’ time as world leaders gather for the COP 26 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow.  

Action on climate change is integral with AONB purposes to conserve and enhance the landscape.  The AONB network nationally is working to see how it can be most effective in this work. 

Since AONB organisations are small and most don’t manage any land directly, the emphasis is on the influencing role we can play – in policies and strategies, projects and activity of partners, and in affecting public behaviour. 

A group of staff from different AONB teams are collaborating through a programme looking at agriculture, nature-based solutions, buildings and development, sustainable tourism and transport, and renewable energy.  As well as looking at what works, good examples and evidence, this work will make recommendations on further action, and roll out training and awareness among AONB teams and partnerships. Some of this will be shared on Twitter next week, during Landscapes for Life week. 

We need governments to commit to bold action at COP26, but this will need to be matched by action at regional and local levels, by companies, community organisations and individuals.  It’s a good time to ask in all these contexts of our lives whether there’s more we can do?  Among many resources available on climate action, here is some excellent material on the importance of public engagement -  https://climateoutreach.org/about-us/theory-of-change/

Delve into the past on Clee Liberty & the Long Mynd 

Over the next three years, the Our Common Cause project will be working to conserve and enhance the heritage of commons and commoning, here in the Shropshire Hills, but also on Dartmoor, in the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales.

Coming up are two local launch events to explain the project and ways to get involved:

• 21^st September, 7pm in Clee St Margaret Village Hall for the project on Clee Liberty Common
• 23^rd September, 7pm in Norbury Village Hall for the project on the Long Mynd

The activities planned for the Long Mynd and Clee Liberty will help us to delve into the past, understand the historic features better and preserve and document them for the future. The volunteering opportunities can be as hands on as you like and are suitable for all ages and abilities.

Please book onto one or both events by emailing renee@foundationforcommonland.org.uk or telephone 07929 726337.

Funding from the National Heritage Lottery is enabling ‘Our Common Cause’ to work with 12 upland commons in four of England's national landscapes. Here in the Shropshire Hills, the project will focus on three upland commons; the Long Mynd, Stiperstones  and Clee Liberty. 

A new project has been launched in the Shropshire Hills which will see the fantastic biodiversity found within churchyards and cemeteries spreading back out into our towns, villages, verges, gardens and school grounds. 

Caring for God’s Acre has received funding from Defra via the Green Recovery Challenge Fund (until March 2022) to work with burial ground managers, communities and conservation partners, to increase biodiversity within burial grounds and to radiate that diversity out into the wider community. Burial grounds contain our oldest trees, our rarest lichens and fungi, and precious wildflower meadows, which are in serious decline throughout the UK.

Opening the Ark will plan, organise, manage and deliver a programme of activities and public facing events with a specific focus on nature-based volunteer involvement and participation which will go towards reversing this trend of habitat loss and species decline.

This will include focused volunteer conservation task days at burial grounds, churchyards, cemeteries and at local community spaces throughout the AONB as well as running nature discovery days, events and community training days – all focusing on nature and increasing the rich biodiversity found within the Shropshire Hills.

For more information and details of how you, your churchyard or your community can become involved, contact Mick Clifton at Caring for God’s Acre on 01588 673041 or email mick@cfga.org.uk

The Stepping Stones Project has also been awarded a grant from the Green Recovery Challenge Fund to continue their work connecting habitats between the Stretton hills, Long Mynd and Stiperstones. 

Stepping Stones supports environmental activities by local farmers, landowners, community and volunteer groups within the project area, and is helping these groups to identify opportunities for using the funds to support their conservation work. 

Programmes of work for the creation of wildflower meadows, hedgerow and tree planting, the conservation of curlew, dormouse and small pearl-bordered fritillary have been identified and are being worked up in detail for funding support.

Some of this will be undertaken or supported by a Stepping Stones volunteer team and by other volunteer groups. To keep in touch with the project’s activities and find out about volunteering opportunities please email charlie.bell@nationaltrust.org.uk

The project is also working with the Upper Onny Farmers Group to develop a programme of farm demonstrations and specialist workshops to support local farmers and landowners. The events programme aims to encourage farmers to learn from other farmers’ experiences in managing land in environmentally friendly ways that also benefit the farm businesses.

The first farmer event will focus on hay meadow creation, restoration and management at the end of September. The programme encourages farmers to collaborate and explore ways by which the management of their farm holdings can result in wider landscape-scale environmental benefits for wildlife, water quality and carbon capture.

Further details about the Stepping Stones project click here