Many gardeners have long since ditched the peat in favour of other composts and other stuff to grow their plants in.
For the thoughtful gardening-with-wildlife gardener it is a really positive step to ensure that special places for wildlife are protected from the euphemistically styled ‘peat winning’ has contributed to the destruction of over 95% of our lowland raised bogs. There was a time when it looked feasible that this was a whole UK habitat that could be destroyed (with all its wildlife) while grow-bags were stuffed with peat to beautify our own back yards.
But last-ditch efforts did save some of the best sites. I was proud to have had a small role in setting up the Thorne and Hatfield Moors Conservation Forum in the early 90s – it gave voice to naturalists and campaigners passionate to stop the wholesale open-cast mining (a much more accurate word than ‘winning’) of two extensive areas of lowland raised bog straddling the Yorkshire/Lincolnshire boarder.
A picture from the 90s showing the extent of open-cast mining for peat
Our campaign was in part successful and large chunks of both sites were saved and are still there, home to sundews (pictured below) and nightjars and countless insects (well, not countless obviously, because counting and indentifying them was a vital part of making the conservation case).
In parallel, efforts were focussed on challenging the horticultural industry to provide alternatives for gardeners to buy. This long-running campaign has benefitted form the support of gardening legends such as the late Geoff Hamilton and awakened awareness of the issue and has prompted real progress in the move to alternatives.
But, as the coalition Government have recognised, there’s a way to go yet. We welcome the consultation on proposals to phase out the use of peat launched last week.
You’ve stopped using peat, here’s the next thing you can do.
The consultation is open and you can find out more (and add your voice) here.
Richard Benyon, the Government’s Natural Environment Minister also recognizes the progress made:
“The horticultural industry has made real progress in reducing peat use, but I want to see peat eliminated from the amateur gardener market by 2020. We need to go further if we are to protect our natural environment and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“This will be challenging, but more sustainable and good quality peat-free alternatives are already available, and I believe it is achievable for peat to be phased out in all markets before 2030.”
We welcome this consultation and our Director of Conservation, Mark Avery is clear that phasing out the commercial exploitation of peat will need real leadership from Government: ‘This consultation is overdue. Horticultural peat use causes destruction of valuable wildlife habitats that are home to birds like golden plover, snipe and curlew as well as a variety of butterflies and dragonflies.
Peat takes thousands of years to form and in the process it locks up large amounts carbon. We are a nation of gardeners and take great pride in our flowerbeds, but there are plenty of viable alternatives to peat which do not damage our natural environment and add to our carbon dioxide emissions’.
The damage is continuing, the peat lands in Greater Manchester such as Chat Moss have an uncertain future still – their survival will depend on ending the use of peat in horticulture sooner rather than later.
The consultation includes proposals to:
• Phase out peat by 2015 in the Government and the wider public sector, including Local Authorities;
• Phase out peat by 2020 in the amateur gardener market for bagged growing media (including ‘grow bags’ and multi-purpose compost) that represents the majority (69%) of peat use;
• Phase out peat by 2030 at the very latest for professional growers of fruit, vegetables and plants;
• Carry out a comprehensive review of the new policy and progress in 2015; and
• Establish an industry-led and time-limited taskforce to look specifically at identifying opportunities and barriers to moving away from peat in the professional horticulture sector.
We understand that a wide range of interested parties are being consulted, including DIY retailers, garden centres, growing media manufacturers, Local Authorities and Non-Government Organisations.
DEFRA have indicated that the consultation responses will feed into the Natural Environment White Paper that will be published in the Spring.
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