This morning as a change from guiding walks, I went out onto Wessenden Moor with Megan and Bryan from the Moors for the Future Partnership to look at some of their forthcoming work.

The aim of their project is to restore the moorland to its former natural beauty by re-vegetating large bare areas of peat. This will provide many benefits, including stopping huge amounts of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere as the peat erodes, and improving the quality of the water that runs into Yorkshire Water’s reservoirs.

Peat erodes much more quickly when it dries out, so in addition to re-seeding the area, Megan explained to me that she will be identifying suitable points in the peat gullies to be blocked off. This will stop rain from running off the moor so quickly, retaining the water in the peat.

There was too much snow on the ground to enable any work to be done this morning, but lots to do before the start of the nesting season when work will be halted so that ground nesting birds aren’t disturbed.