Bampton Common Peatland Restoration

Bampton Common is a 25.8 km² common that sits above the Haweswater Reservoir in the Eastern Lake District. It ranges from 200m to 802m above sea level.

Restoration area:  There are large expanses of blanket bog on the flat tops of the common, with over 5.5 km² having been identified for restoration.

Landowner:  United Utilities

Conservation status:  RSPB Nature Reserve, water catchment providing drinking water for 2 million people in the North West of England, and Common land.

The problem:  The majority of Bampton Common’s blanket bog is in a degraded condition, with actively eroding hags and gullies, in addition to areas of bare peat. There is historical evidence of peat cutting, as well as erosion caused by the drying out of the peat. In heavy rain, sediment is washed into the reservoir and becks below.

What Cumbria Wildlife Trust did:  Detailed surveys enabled us to accurately map all the erosion features on the common. Yorkshire Wildlife Trust flew a drone over the common to take detailed aerial photographs, and using this information we were able to produce a detailed restoration plan. This plan was used to secure government funding to address the peat erosion problem and to tender for the work with local contractors.

Using specialist excavators, we re-profiled the steep eroding edges, covering them with turf taken from borrow pits nearby. Sediment traps within erosion gullies were created, allowing them to infill and stabilise. Larger bare areas were revegetated using heather brash, and seed and sediment traps to slow water where necessary.

In total we have revegetated 23,400m² of bare peat across the common and re-profiled 69km of peat hags. In addition, we undertook 7km of peat bunding in order to help raise the water table and keep the peat saturated.

Benefits:  Peatland restoration at this site will help reduce the amount of peat particles reaching the reservoir below. This will improve drinking water quality and reduce the need for expensive pre-treatment of the water. Keeping the peat wet and on the common will also reduce carbon emissions from the site by 843 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, as well as increasing the biodiversity of the site. Surveys by the RSPB have already seen an increase in birdlife using the newly-created pools.

Species benefitting:  Snipe have been recorded using the newly-created pools. Other species that will benefit include: common heather, common cotton-grass, hare’s-tail cotton-grass, deer grass, cross-leaved heath, crowberry, bilberry, cowberry, cranberry, cloudberry, bog rosemary, bog asphodel, sundew, purple moor-grass, soft rush and sphagnum moss.