Natural England

Farmers who drained Exmoor in the past have been cooperating with a moorland wildlife restoration project.

The Exmoor Mire Restoration Project, hosted by Exmoor National Park Authority, has been blocking the ditches with the aim of restoring the boggy moors to their former glory.

For one Exmoor family the Mire Restoration Project has been just another chapter in the long history of the moorlands. The May family who own the Squallacombe moors, near Simonsbath, were encouraged to drain the moors in the 1970s by the Ministry of Agriculture. The aim then was to improve the food growing productivity of the land.

Robin May remembers how wet the moors were before drainage and how they used to quake when you walked on them. He recalls getting stuck on Squallacome in a Landrover when he was an enthusiastic farming college student. He is also able to point out how much the moorland streams have eroded down the hillside, taking hundreds of tons of rubble downstream into the rivers, since the ditches were cut.

Times have changed and people now realise that moorland management should include looking after the rivers and wildlife as well as the important task of producing food for the nation. The ditches on Squallacome moor were blocked up last year by agricultural contractors A&B of Kentisbury nr. Barnstaple and Robin May is pleased with the results.

“The pools created behind the ditch blocks are full of water and the moor feels like it’s quaking again. This winter we had flocks of Golden Plover on Squallacombe and we look forward to seeing more wildlife in the spring. Our main business is farming and long may it continue to be so but the Exmoor Mire Restoration project is a fascinating idea and we are pleased to be involved with it. It also helps to create work for agricultural contractors who are having a hard time of things at the moment with financial cut backs”.

Project manager David Smith said: “We are very grateful to all the farmers involved with the Mire Restoration Project who have made a generous commitment to the future of Exmoor, in a time of climatic and agricultural uncertainty. Although the work has taken place at no cost to the landowners there are no financial rewards either, so their involvement really has been for the wider benefits of the moorland.”

Notes:

Benefits of the project include:

• Storing more carbon on the moorlands in the form of fresh peat. This helps to fighting global warming and climate change.
• Keeping rainfall on the moorlands. Stopping water running straight off has many benefits. It keeps moorlands wet in summer, providing vital water for wildlife and moorland grazing stock. It slowly feeds moorland streams and springs which have been drying up. It reduces the erosive power of streams after heavy storms and may even help prevent flooding further down the river systems.
• Reducing erosion and restoring river low flows will improve water quality for river life. This will be good news for salmon and trout fishermen on Exmoor.
• Preserving history hidden in the peat by keeping the moorland wet. The evidence is often very fragile and could include wooden, animal or human artefacts as well as the peaty plant remains itself which can be analysed to help tell the story of the past. If the peat dries out all will be lost.
• The return of moorland wildlife. The restoration work should bring back birds, insects, amphibians and reptiles onto the moors as well as the rare Sphagnum mosses and other bog plants.

The restoration work is funded by The Exmoor Mire Restoration Project and Natural England through the Environmental Sensitive Area and Environmental Stewardship Schemes.

Hosted by the Exmoor National Park Authority the Exmoor Mire Restoration project is a 3 year partnership with the Environment Agency (EA), Natural England and South West Water (SWW). They have raised £256,000 to spend on habitat restoration to improve the hydrology and ecology of upland wetlands (blanket bogs and valley mires) on Exmoor.