I mentioned the massive loss of lowland peatlands recently when telling you about our concerns abut the Isle of Axholme. Over 94% of lowland raised bogs have been lost – gone, wrecked, destroyed. This particular type of peat bog – lowland raised mire – has come as close as any habitat to disappearing completely.
A whole habitat!
Before I tell you the story, I do want to highlight that there’s something you can do at the end.
In recent times, the main driver of the loss of lowland peat bogs has been the use of peat to make compost for horticultural use. It’s often called peat harvesting – giving the process a sustainable veneer. Call it open cast mining – for that is what it is.
The assault on the senses when you witness the destruction – is unforgettable. On flat landscapes the ravages of the mining are concealed by a fringe of trees. Pass through the curtain of birch trees and the scale of the operation is apparent. For me it was Thorne and Hatfield Moors on the boarders of South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire – and my epiphany was over twenty years ago.
The Government clearly agrees that the continued use of peat for use as compost is unsustainable and must stop – but on a twenty-year timescale. Hear hear to the principle – but two decades is too long to right this wrong.
I’ll come back to Thorne and Hatfield later – but let me tell you a little about a lowland raised mire (not too much – if you want the full story, here’s a link). Their key feature is that the only source of water is from the rain, peat builds up as the water-logged remains of plants in a shallow bowl in the landscape and is topped with surface of living vegetation. Over the centuries, humans have used peat for fuel, for animal bedding and cut-areas have developed their own particular interest.
Insectivorous plants like sundews, rare insects from large heath butterflies to mire pill beetles call these places home – a wildlife community easily wrecked. Now here’s a picture of the process of stripping peat – it’s straight forward and industrial. Remove the veg and drain, then mill the peat and pile it up for processing.
That was Thorne Moors in the bad old days. The future for the scattering of our most important bogs here and in Cumbria is much brighter – but the industry grinds on in this country and overseas. As spring approaches and our thoughts turn to time in the garden, the garden centres are piled with composts to attract the green fingered and the rest of us who are more in the plant and hope camp.
And here's what lowland bogs should look like.
Will you pick a peat-alternative? I hope you do. The glory of your garden should not be at the expense of the glories of our natural world should it?
So we want to see the Government encourage the end of this destructive use of peat – and we’re suggesting that one way to speed the day is to introduce a peat levy. Tax the damage that peat does – make the costs equivalent to composts made with alternatives to peat and hasten the day that the damage will stop.
The campaigns to save the best of remnants of our lowland raised mires had some successes those of us involved two decades ago intervened at the eleventh hour. Despite widespread acceptance that peat-use is fundamentally unsustainable we’ve seen 15 years of failure to deliver through voluntary means. We believe a peat levy is a vital signal that the damage must stop – and soon.
You can help – if you feel as strongly about this issue as I do, please send a letter to your MP, you can find all the details of what we are asking you to do here.
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