30 December 2024
Broadoak Woodland: Peatland restoration
The National Trust, in partnership with Lancashire Wildlife Trust, has recently carried out restoration work on Broadoak wood, to breathe new life back into the thin peat soils beneath the woodland. This work includes rewetting the ground by building water retaining ‘walls’ to store the precious rainwater that feeds bogs and replanting lost bog plant species.
Our restoration work will create an absolute haven for wildlife. Standing water, saturated ground and the diverse plant communities will provide habitats for amphibians, dragonflies and other invertebrates. This will attract birds and mammals and transform a wildlife poor woodland back into a thriving mix of habitats, a genuine oasis for people and nature.
What is a peat bog?
Peatland has many names; moss, mossland, mire, bog. Birthed after the last great ice age left the landscape of Britain a clean slate for new habitats, peat soils spent the last few thousand years accumulating in lakes and pools left behind by the retreating ice sheets. Peat is formed when dead plants rot down in waterlogged conditions, creating layers and layers of carbon-rich soil, forming some of the most important and nature-rich habitats: peat bogs cover only 3% of the world’s land surface but store nearly 30% of the world’s soil carbon.
