Dartmoor Mires Project

During September and October 2011, restoration of eroding blanket bog on Winney’s Down will take place. The area contains high quality blanket bog which is threatened by encroaching erosion which has already reduced the quality of blanket bog in places across the site, particularly around the periphery. for more information please visit the Restoration at Winney’s Down page.

The Dartmoor Mires Project has been established to carry out restoration of Dartmoor's blanket bog in order to conserve and enhance this crucial habitat for upland wildlife, to improve water supply and increase the potential of south west England’s blanket bog to store carbon and hence to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
The Dartmoor Mires Project is part of a joint Dartmoor and Exmoor project called Mires on the Moors, which began in April 2010 and will run for 5 years, with significant financial support from South West Water. On Dartmoor the blanket bog restoration work is being co-ordinated by Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) and steered by a partnership of the Environment Agency,Duchy of Cornwall, Natural England, South West Water and the Dartmoor Commoners Council. It also benefits from a wider partnership including the MOD, Forest of Dartmoor Commoners, RSPB, English Heritage and the Dartmoor Access Forum.

The five year project will concentrate on restoration works to reduce erosion and promote the regeneration of moorland bog vegetation. In this way the moors will be ‘stitched’ back together. This will bring various benefits including restoration of a globally important habitat and its associated species such as Dunlin, and improved water quality which benefits all river life including species such as the salmon. The project will also be investigating whether the work brings benefits in terms of slowing the rate of run off into streams and rivers, after rainfall.

Protecting the blanket bog vegetation on Dartmoor will also protect the peat, which is a huge carbon store, that lies in layers beneath the surface. This will both prevent further losses of carbon and enhance the potential of the bog to lock up additional stores of carbon.

In developing project work, a range of interests are being considered, including the historic environment, access and recreation, and grazing on the commons.

Please use the following links to view information on the Dartmoor Mires project

• Hydrological monitoring Briefing note October 2011 ( PDF Help 518Kb)
• Dartmoor Mires Project hydrological monitoring plan  ( PDF Help 662Kb)
• project brief 2011  ( PDF Help 44Kb)
  
• project flyer 2011 ( PDF Help 272Kb)
• project FAQs 2011  ( PDF Help 67Kb)

For further details please contact the Dartmoor Mires project officer, Frances Cooper by

email - fcooper@dartmoor.gov.uk
phone - 01626 832 093
or post - Dartmoor Mires Project, c/o Dartmoor National Park Authority, Parke, Bovey Tracey, Devon. TQ13 9JQ