Worldwide fame for vital peatlands
RESIDENTS of Greater Manchester rejoice!
For your boggy, squelchy neighbours are getting famous!
Chat Moss, spanning areas around Salford, was once one of the UK’s largest lowland raised peat bogs.
But it was unappreciated and unloved and throughout the 1800s and onwards was subject to industrial drainage and conversion to agricultural land. This caused us to lose 99 per cent of this amazing habitat.
But all is not lost, as the fate of our peatlands is slowly starting to turn around and people are beginning to recognise them for the amazing habitats and ecosystems that they are.
Not least the Washington Post (yes, the actual one from America!) which has recently been visiting some of our region’s peatlands and finding out more about why they are so precious.
Peatlands are one of our most vital natural resources in our fight against climate change, as when they are healthy, happy, wet and squelchy, they are able to sequester carbon.
Essentially this is a posh term for sucking in carbon from the atmosphere and locking it away in their peaty soils.
However, as soon as they are drained or damaged in any way this carbon gets released actually contributing to climate change. In fact, it is estimated that globally, damaged peatlands account for over five pc of greenhouse gas emissions.
To bring that closer to home, a recent report by DEFRA discovered that the damaged peatlands of Chat Moss are emitting over 90,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year – that’s more than can be absorbed by Greater Manchester’s 11 million trees.
So, it seems irrefutable that we need to start loving our peatlands again – and this is just what we have been telling anyone that will listen for years now.
However, with the COP26 climate summit here it seems that some people (including our new friends from Washington) have started listening.
What’s more, our American cousins will not just be hearing about the carbon-storing qualities of this vast reserve, they can look up some of the wonderful wildlife that lives and visits these glorious wildernesses.
Due to their unique wet and acidic nature, our peatlands are home to some seriously weird and wonderful wildlife.
Some of my favourites are the carnivores that call our peatlands home.
Now we’re not talking lions and tigers, although you might spot the odd fox, but peatlands play host to a number of carnivorous plant species.
Although it might be small in stature, the jewel bright tones of the sundew make it stand out amongst the greens of the sphagnum mosses, heathers and cotton grasses.
Sundews are bright red and have tiny tentacles that protrude from their leaves, each one tipped with a tiny droplet of sticky ‘dew.’
As soon as an unsuspecting fly or other insect passes it gets stuck to this liquid, allowing the leaves to curl up around it and releasing an enzyme which digests the sundew’s gruesome prey.
Let’s not forget the fastest creature on earth which can be found residing in your local bog pool.
“What? Cheetahs in Salford?” You might be saying, but no, the fastest living creature is actually called lesser bladderwort, an aquatic plant that looks like nothing more than a bit of slimy pondweed.
However, its tendrils are covered in tiny bladder-like chambers which can react to, and suck in, passing aquatic invertebrates in under one 10,000th of a second!
And in even further wonderful news, healthy peatlands can even help to naturally mitigate flooding and improve our water quality.
So, whether you have a beautiful fragment of bog on your doorstep such as the lucky people of Irlam and Culcheth with Little Woolden Moss, or just fancy visiting somewhere new for a walk, check out your local bog.
And whilst you’re there, remember to say thank you to it. I mean, if the Washington Post can do it...