Mire Emergency

Rebuilding a Mire

This is an exciting volunteer-led project to propagate locally-sourced mire-building mosses to help recover a carbon-sequestering bog on Hatfield Moors Site of Special Scientific Interest and Special Area of Conservation. The project will benefit biodiversity, hold rainwater on the moors reducing downstream flood risk and tackle climate change.

Why we need to act

Hatfield Moor is part of the Humberhead Levels NNR, one of the largest ecological reclamation areas in Europe, having been significantly damaged by decades of industrial peat extraction.

The moor is revegetating but even after 20 years of conservation management by Natural England, the vital mound-building sphagnum mosses have not become established. Recent research suggests that peat is still oxidising from the site. This means that the carbon captured by the bog is re-entering the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.

Sourcing Sphagnum Moss

Several species of sphagnum moss, including some hummock-forming mire-building types are present on an uncut area of deep peat located in the middle of the Moors.

This site, known as Lindholme Old Moor, is located on the north side of Lindholme Island, the home of Gomde UK.

Species Showcase

Why is sphagnum important?

The Lindholme Old Moor Management Group - Preserving Biodiversity

The local conservation and scientific community have been active on the Humberhead Levels for almost 40 years; real pioneers of environmental activism.

Since Gomde’s founding in 2009 we have collaborated with this passionate group through fundraising, consultancy and active management of the rarest parts of the estate. This collaboration formalised and blossomed in the Lindholme Old Moor Management Group (LOMM Group). The group’s remit is to keep this site as wet as possible and thus preserve habitats for animals and plants lost from the wider moors, in the hope that eventually the surrounding mire will become suitable for recolonisation.

LOMM Group

Our 'Mossery'

The project involves the creation of an artificial temporary sphagnum nursery constructed by a combined local volunteer community using simple materials (timbers and pond liners).

Some of the nursery area will be inside two protective polytunnels funded by the Nature for Climate Fund (via the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust). The tunnels are located close to the meditation hall at Gomde, at the heart of the community.

Sustainable Propagation

Volunteers are carefully collecting small samples of mosses from the donor moss colonies on Lindholme Old Moor.

These are then grown in the nursery to multiply these plants so that they can provide a sustainable source of moss for future transplantation onto the publicly accessible wider Moors owned by Natural England.

Learning from others

Guidance on the methodology has been sought from members of the Lancashire Wildlife Trust who are undertaking similar sphagnum propagation work on a degraded mire at Chat Moss on the edge of Manchester and Calderdale ‘Growing Resilience’ project.

Members of the Management Group have visited the Lancashire Mosses and the ‘Growing Resilience’ sphagnum nursery at Cromwell Bottom to learn more about this work.

Support and co-operation

The project will lead to a physical improvement of the environment and at various stages of the project there will be opportunities for supervised activities where members of public play their part in improving the Moors.

Timescale and longevity

Construction of the moss nursery and establishment of the initial ‘seed’ colonies will be completed by July 2024.
This is a long-term project and once set up it is intended that the nursery will continue to provide mosses for restoration of the mire over many years. This project is supported by Natural England and YWT.

What is moss, anyway?

Mosses do not have roots; they take invisible carbon dioxide gas from the air and absorb rain water through leaves and stems.

By using a green pigment called chlorophyll within their cells, the moss uses energy from sunlight to convert the water and carbon dioxide into energy ‘stores’ in the form of carbon-based sugars, via a process known as photosynthesis. A byproduct is the release of oxygen into the atmosphere.

The moss links thousands of sugar molecules together to form cellulose, a very tough substance that forms the walls of plant cells.

In the hummock-forming or ‘bog-making’ sphagnum mosses, the network of green ‘photosynthetic’ cells is also surrounded by other special cells that simply hold and conduct water. This is how sphagnum moss can hold over 20 times its dry weight in water.

As the moss grows, its metabolism also creates acidic conditions in the local environment.
The growing moss can create a dense carpet, sealing off lower layers from oxygen in the atmosphere. The build up of dead lower stems in this waterlogged acidic environment means that it only partially decomposes; effectively it becomes ‘pickled’ and preserved.

Over time this material becomes compacted and compressed under the weight of the waterlogged moss carpet above and forms peat.