Somerset Wildlife Trust is celebrating a key step forward in its fight against climate change and biodiversity loss, with the recent completion of its peatland restoration project on Westhay Moor Nature Reserve, one of the Trust’s flagship reserves, and part of the Somerset Wetlands ‘super’ National Nature Reserve. 

Peatlands cover just 3% of the Earth’s surface but contain over 30% of the world’s soil carbon. Unfortunately, 80% of the peatlands in England are degraded, putting the carbon stored within them and the rare, specialist species they support at risk. The peatlands on the Somerset Levels and Moors have a long history of drainage. Peat has been extracted for fuel and, more recently, for compost production. This has left much of the peat remaining in the landscape, including on Westhay Moor, in a degraded condition. 

Over a period of 18 months, Somerset Wildlife Trust worked with leading specialists Open Space (Cumbria) Ltd. to deliver an exciting peatland restoration project using a technique called ‘deep trench cell bunding’. Developed and refined over two decades in the north-west of England, this method has been used to help to revive the degraded peat on Westhay Moor, as well as Natural England’s Shapwick Heath Nature Reserve, the project’s sister site, which was the first time this technique was used on the lowland peat in Somerset. 

The complex technique involves slowing the flow of water by sealing underground cracks and fissures beneath the surface, whilst small surface ‘bunds’ are constructed to capture the rainwater the peat needs to stay healthy. This approach has now been carried out across 24 hectares of Westhay Moor National Nature Reserve, a major milestone for the Somerset Peatland Partnership project. 

Since the work was completed, there have already been promising signs of progress. Several pairs of lapwing have been seen nesting in newly restored areas of Westhay Moor, and sphagnum moss — which is essential to a healthy peat bog — is spreading more widely than before, including in areas of the reserve where it hasn’t previously been recorded. The Trust believes that other specialist species, including the carnivorous sundew, micro-plume moth, and large marsh grasshopper will benefit from the project and the restoration of an open peatland habitat. 

Sian Russell, Peatland Partnership Project Coordinator at Somerset Wildlife Trust, says: 
“The work we’ve been carrying out at Westhay Moor is critically important. We are currently in a climate emergency, and we need to take bold action to protect our peatlands and ensure the vital carbon they store stays locked up and in the ground. These works are a massive step forward in the rehabilitation of one of the largest remnants of lowland raised bog in the south west, making it more resilient to changing weather patterns as well as supporting some rare and specialist species right here in the heart of Somerset.” 

This project was funded by the Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme and the Landfill Communities Fund via the Valencia Communities Fund. It is part of a wider project through which the Somerset Peatland Partnership, hosted by Somerset Wildlife Trust, has funded feasibility studies on 11 peatland sites across Somerset and North Somerset, along with a variety of restoration works on areas of Shapwick Heath and North Moor, with parts of King’s Sedgemoor, Moorlinch, and Westhay Heath planned to receive capital funding this year. As part of the project, three Somerset-based subcontractors have been trained in the complex restoration technique, to help ensure local knowledge can continue to support Somerset’s peatlands, the carbon they store, and the specialised species that depend on them. 

Somerset Wildlife Trust will be continuing to monitor the success of the work on Westhay Moor through a network of water level monitoring wells across the site and a dedicated team of volunteers and staff who will be undertaking regular vegetation and species surveys. Over the next five years the Trust hopes the rehabilitation of the peatland habitats on the reserve will go from strength to strength as the peat rehydrates and water tables stabilise.