Phone: 01948 880 362
All of the UK’s National Nature Reserves, car parks and visitor facilities are closed until further notice, including the Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses NNR. We’ll post updates as and when they’re available and we’ll continue to update the Meres & Mosses website with posts about the amazing biodiversity on the Mosses. In the meantime, please stay safe and follow government guidelines.
Great Grey Shrike at marches Mosses , by Stephen Barlow
The great grey shrike (Lanius excubitor) has been spotted on Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses. They’ll soon be returning to their Scandinavian breeding grounds, after spending the winter hunting over the Mosses.
A medium-sized bird, the great grey shrike is black and grey with a white underbelly, a black band across its eyes and a long tail. Perched on tall posts and treetops, shrikes use their hawk-like hunting technique to swoop down and catch their prey, generally insects and small birds and animals. Shrikes may impale their catch on a thorn or spike to save them for later, earning their nickname of “the butcher bird”.
On the Mosses, you may hear the shrikes’ call, a harsh “sheck, sheck” or an occasional song – a low-pitched warble with some harsher notes. They will sometimes imitate other birds’ songs as well.
Shrikes make their nests of dry grass, moss and twigs that they line with roots, wool and feathers, creating a warm home for their young. Breeding pairs produce one brood per year of five to seven greenish-white, darkly marked eggs. After a 15-day incubation period, both parents look after the brood; the young leave the nest when they are about 20 days old.
Shrikes are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Birdwatchers estimate that around 60 birds overwinter in wetlands including the Marches Mosses and another 125 or so pass through Britain on their way to other winter locations.
A Brief Background of the Mosses
The Marches Mosses – Fenn’s, Whixall, Bettisfield and Wem Mosses – make up the third largest lowland raised bog in Britain, a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a European Special Area of Conservation (SAC). This peatland was formed over 12,000 years ago when Sphagnum moss began to grow in the wetland formed by the retreat of glaciers. The Sphagnum acidified the water, stopping the decay of plant remains. These built up like a sponge to form the raised expanse of the peat moss, with the pickled water creating an environment suitable for the unique combination of plants and animals that thrive here.
Peatlands, a rare habitat that make up only 3% of the earth’s surface and grow at just 1mm/year, depend on retaining rainwater for their existence. The Marches Mosses began to collapse when the bog was drained over several hundred years, the dried peat was cut for fuel and agricultural and horticultural use, and the edge habitat around the Moss was turned into farmland. The decay of the peat meant that carbon that had been stored for millennia was being lost and by the late 1980s the Mosses were badly damaged.
In 1990 the peatland was acquired as a National Nature Reserve (NNR) and restoration was begun. This has led to an increase in biodiversity as plants and animals that thrive in the boggy conditions return. Repair of the peat has meant an increase in the store of carbon. Because peat stores more carbon than plants, trees and other types of soil, the Mosses are an important weapon in the fight against climate change.
The Mosses
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A conversation with Steve Dobbin, Natural England Reserves Manager, and some of the people who volunteer on the BogLIFE regeneration project at Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses.
Steve, first, why do you have volunteers working on the Mosses regeneration?
“Volunteers are an important part of the regeneration work underway here at Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses. From monitoring butterflies and birds to helping with habitat management and site maintenance, volunteers on the Mosses get involved in many aspects of this vital project.
“We need their skills, experience and enthusiasm. There simply aren’t enough people on staff to do all the work that needs to be done to manage the site here, as well as to observe and keep records of the plants and animals – often rare species – that are here on the Mosses.”
Who are the volunteers? What are their backgrounds? Why do they volunteer?
“People volunteer to work at the Mosses for many reasons. Many have a keen interest in wildlife and want to make a contribution to the regeneration of the Mosses. Others simply like being part of a team, meeting new people and spending time in the outdoors.
“For instance, Sarah began volunteering last autumn as part of her countryside management course at Reaseheath College, while Rosie was looking for a way to spend more time outdoors and gain experience in the conservation sector. Hans in interested in wildlife, especially birds like the curlew that nest on the Moss. Di took the opportunity to help with the Mosses butterfly survey after joining Shropshire Wildlife Trust. Other volunteers include a retired doctor, a landscaper, and students – from secondary school to Masters candidates.”
What do the volunteers do?
“We have a wide range of jobs that our volunteers get involved with here at Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses and the work stretches the year ’round.
“The bulk of our summer workload is site management. This can include fence repairs and installation, and access improvement – installing gates, cutting back vegetation around entrance points and notice boards, and repainting marker posts along visitor trails.
“In late summer, we cut and remove vegetation from areas of wildflower meadow to keep the mineral levels low, encouraging a variety of wildflowers and associated species. Another important element of the work is monitoring wildlife on the reserve, including bird, butterfly and adder populations, as well as monitoring the water levels across the Mosses throughout the seasons.
“Our volunteers often carry out monitoring along set routes across the site known as transects. These transects are walked by the volunteers at different times throughout the year, allowing them to record the numbers and locations of the different species they are monitoring, or the changes in water levels across the site. All of this is vital information about the health of the Mosses.
“In the autumn and winter, we get involved in habitat management. This includes hedgerow management, coppicing areas of willow to improve woodland structure and clearing scrub around pools to prevent them drying up. The volunteers are also helping clear some areas of woodland as part of the BogLIFE project so as to help re-wet and restore the peat. They have also helped to make and install bird boxes around the site ready for spring.”
How often do the volunteers work?
“Thursdays are our regular task days. We have groups of five to 15 volunteers depending on the season. With a wide range of jobs to do, we can get people involved in what interests them. Some volunteers work on different days, depending on the work they’re involved with.”
Sarah explains her role: “I work on hydro monitoring, checking the water levels on the Moss regularly and recording data on what I find. The water levels on the Moss are vital to the health of the Sphagnum and other bog mosses.”
Di helps with the butterfly surveying: “I come out to the Mosses once a week from early April until the end of September, or even into October if the weather is still good. I spend two to three hours each week walking along a set path – a ‘transect’ – with another volunteer to count the butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies we see, recording them by species. We normally start around mid-day, but it all depends on the temperature and the wind. We need to be there when the butterflies are out.”
What background and experience do people need to volunteer on the Mosses?
“We don’t have any prerequisites for knowledge or experience, and we don’t have any requirement that people commit to working a certain length of time, or even every week. We provide tools and outdoor clothing so people just need to bring their wellies or boots and turn up.
“What we do want are people who are interested in being outdoors and enthusiastic about helping in the regeneration of the Mosses which are a critical part of the fight against climate change.”
Hans: “I work part time as a vet and began volunteering on the Mosses in spring of 2018. I like being out in nature, especially seeing the birds. I took part in the 2019 curlew project and also saw a hobby while painting some posts. To be honest, it was more like a stroll with some painting included!”
What are the benefits of volunteering to join your band of hardy workers?
“In addition to being out in the fresh air and wide open skies of the Mosses, we offer informal training in areas such as proper use of hand tools, effective wildlife monitoring skills, and plant and animal identification. Some of our volunteers have also gained certification in the use of ATVs, tools like brush cutters and chainsaws, and the safe use of pesticides.”
Sarah: “I’m working on a project for my course at Reaseheath while I volunteer, compiling a portfolio of plant species IDs. Working here is helping me decide where I want to take my career.”
Rosie adds:” I quite like the practical side of the work I do on the Moss. I’m learning hand tool use and estate management skills and meeting new people; everyone is really enthusiastic.”
And the rewards?
“The rewards are many and varied: being outdoors, learning about the unique habitat of the peat moss and its important role in carbon storage, meeting new people and working as part of a team, update days and, oh, yes, those chocolate biscuits – always on hand and useful energy before – and after – a day’s work out in the open air.”
How can people volunteer?
Steve is always happy for new volunteers to join the group. Whether you can help a little or a lot, every week or once in a while, everyone involved in the BogLIFE regeneration project at Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses appreciates the work of the volunteers.
Just drop in, email or call Steve for a chat. Details are at the end of this post. You needn’t make a commitment to work a certain number of hours or length of time and there’s no pre-requisite for knowledge or experience.
Daytime phone: 01948 880 362
Or drop by the Natural England office during working hours Monday-Friday:
Manor House Base at Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Moss
Whixall
SY13 2PA
Note: Please be aware that links on this page take you to third party websites.
Breeding pairs of curlews have been spotted on the Marches Mosses this week; the earliest they have been seen pairing up. Curlews usually begin preparation for the breeding season later in March.
Wildlife photographer Stephen Barlow has seen at least three curlew pairs on the Moss and another pair feeding on fields on the edge of the peat. He explains, “There was a sudden burst of activity for about 30-40 minutes with the curlews flying around, noisily calling in the air and on the ground. However, after that, they go very quiet – you’d be forgiven for thinking there are no curlews out there.”
Stephen continues, “From my observations over the last five years, this happens very suddenly – as though a switch was flipped: In the space of a day, curlews go from a social flocking bird to being in exclusive pair bonds that are territorial and will chase off other curlews. They then start to hold territories out on the Moss. Although the actual nesting and egg-laying probably won’t occur until after mid-April, they will now be spending much of their time on the Moss.”
Work on regenerating the peat at Marches Mosses has helped to increase the numbers of curlews in the area. Numbers are growing on the Mosses as the Natural England team add more bunding to retain rainwater and rebuild the peat. The curlews often nest on top of the bunds, where they are safer from predators as the bunds are surrounded by water. In past years, Natural England has built fences around some of the nests to ensure their safety from predators as well as from work crews.
Known more familiarly as Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses NNR, the Mosses are being regenerated through a joint project of Natural England, Natural Resources Wales and Shropshire Wildlife Trust.
What are “Bunds”?
The NNR project is creating a network of cell bunds to retain rainwater on the Mosses, as part of the regeneration of the peat. These are small dams capture the rainwater needed for bog moss growth. The moss in turn acidifies the bog and creates more peat, which stores carbon dioxide and helps to mitigate the effects of climate change.
How can I See the Curlews at the Mosses?
Visiting the Mosses is easy, with car parks at a number of locations around the Mosses, and canal mooring near Morris’ Bridge Fields. You can watch overhead for curlews as they search for food, often travelling to the Morris’ Bridge Fields across the Llangollen Canal to feed at the mudflats.
Tell Me More About Curlews
Britain’s biggest wader, curlews are 45-50cm tall with greyish brown feathers and a white rump and back. Their Latin name, Numenius arquata, refers to the crescent moon shape of the curlew’s long, downward curving beak, which is nearly three times as long as its head.
Curlews are famous for their loud, melancholy trill – a pure, ringing “croo-ee”. The birds sing almost year round, using their calls to establish territories; young male curlews sing to attract mates in the spring.
The UK holds more than a third of the global breeding population of curlews, but numbers have declined dramatically over the past 30 years, with a 46% decline recorded from 1994-2010. Curlews are red-listed as a Bird of Conservation concern in the UK and classed as a priority species in the UK. The British Trust of Ornithology has described curlews as “one of our most rapidly declining breeding bird species”.
Curlews make their nests in hollows among low vegetation in moist moors, heaths and rough grassland, lined with grass or heather where they lay one brood of four eggs in April or May. As a result, the Marches Mosses are an ideal nesting location for curlews.
Among the threats to curlew populations are both increased forestation and intensive farming as these reduce the wetland habitats they favour; increased numbers of predators, including foxes and crows; and climate change, the latter as drier conditions reduce wetland habitats the number of invertebrates that curlews feed on.
Read more about curlews on the Shropshire Wildlife Trust website here
A Brief Background of the Mosses
The Marches Mosses – Fenn’s, Whixall, Bettisfield and Wem Mosses – make up the third largest lowland raised bog in Britain, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a European Special Area of Conservation. This peatland was formed over 12,000 years ago when Sphagnum moss began to grow in the wetland formed by the retreat of glaciers. The Sphagnum acidified the water, stopping the decay of plant remains. These built up like a sponge to form the raised expanse of the peat moss, with the pickled water creating an environment suitable for the unique combination of plants and animals that thrive here.
Peatlands, a rare habitat that make up only 3% of the earth’s surface and grow at just 1mm/year, depend on retaining rainwater for their existence. The Marches Mosses began to collapse when the bog was drained over several hundred years, the dried peat was cut for fuel and agricultural and horticultural use, and the edge habitat around the Moss was turned into farmland. The decay of the peat meant that carbon that had been stored for millennia was being lost and by the late 1980s the Mosses were badly damaged.
In 1990 the peatland was acquired as a National Nature Reserve and restoration was begun. This has led to an increase in biodiversity as plants and animals that thrive in the boggy conditions return and repair of the peat has meant an increase in the store of carbon. Because peat stores more carbon than plants, trees and other types of soil, the Mosses are an important weapon in the fight against climate change.
Note: Please be aware that links on this page take you to third party websites.
New evidence shows that, when it comes to carbon capture, trees are good but bog is best! A recent scientific study headed by Angela Creevy of Edge Hill University has shown that by removing the commercially planted non-native conifers from a local lowland raised bog the ‘carbon sink’ function of the bog has been restored allowing them to ‘impound’ greenhouse gases from the air.
The study was carried out on Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses National Nature Reserve near Whitchurch. The Reserve is part of the wider Marches Mosses BogLIFE restoration project which has removed non-native conifers from the peat, restoring the bog’s ability to heal from the damage caused by commercial tree planting and peat cutting activities.
The group also found that, out of a range of differing recovering plant communities, a ground cover of Sphagnum bog moss along with other bog plants is best for taking greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. The Marches Mosses BogLIFE Project is currently restoring the peat bog by re-wetting formerly afforested areas to encourage the regrowth of Sphagnum bog moss, the basis of peat formation over the last 10,000 years.
In the UK, the industrialised forestry planting of open peatland was widespread in the late 20th Century, with 800,000 hectares – about 20% of the total – supporting serried ranks of conifers. This involved the drainage of the peatlands, not only destroying their ability to capture carbon, but releasing previously stored carbon into the atmosphere.
The BogLIFE Project has focused efforts on the removal of existing plantations and invasive tree species such as birch. This has increased the amount of rain reaching the ground, vital for peat bogs, and has stopped the trees syphoning water out of the bog. The Project has used cell damming to raise the water table, slowing the flow of rainfall off the restored plantations. Together, this slows water flowing into the river systems – helping to reduce flash flooding downstream.
In numbers – Fenn’s & Whixall National Nature Reserve stores 24 million tonnes of carbon. The carbon emission from the 660 hectare area of damaged peatland being restored at Whixall is roughly the equivalent to the emissions from all the cars in Wem and Whixall or 75% of the cars in Whitchurch! Peatlands cover just 3% of the Earth’s surface but contain 30% of all organic carbon on the planet; that’s twice the carbon in all the World’s trees (94% of UK lowland peat bogs have been destroyed).
Read the recent article on peatbogs from The Guardian here
The area known as the Marches Mosses are made up of several peatbog areas: Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses, with Cadney Moss to the south. Shropshire Wildlife Trust manage and own Wem Moss Nature Reserve, which is also being restored. Peatbogs are so important for an array of wildlife, but it is becoming clear that they are just as important to us. Support the work of Shropshire Wildlife Trust by clicking here.
One of the rarest bog plants, the moss Dicranum undulatum, has been found on several sites on the Marches Mosses, which encompasses Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses. The moss, commonly called Waved Fork-moss, was surveyed by noted Bryologist Dr. Des Callaghan, working on behalf of the Natural England /BogLIFE Project which is returning the Mosses to their original state. Dr.Callaghan’s work was published in the January 2020 issue of the respected Journal of Bryology.
Waved Fork-moss (Dicranum undulatum) is listed as “vulnerable” in the Red List of Bryophytes in England and “endangered” in Red List in Wales, due to the destruction and degradation of lowland peatlands. It was found in two places on the Marches Mosses – the Cranberry Beds on Whixall Moss and on Bettisfield Moss. These are the last remaining locations in southern Britain.
There are records of Dicranum undulatum on the Mosses as far back as 1863. Charles Sinker, who worked to raise awareness of the importance of the Marches Mosses, observed it on Cranberry Beds in 1959. It was recorded again in decennial bryophyte surveys in 1993, 2003 and 2013. Historically it is thought it would have been growing across the entire raised bog when it was intact – before commercial peat cutting began.
Dr. Joan Daniels, Natural England Project Officer for the Marches Mosses, explains: “We commissioned Dr. Callaghan to help us better understand the status of this species as it is an indicator of the health of the Mosses. The peat at the Cranberry Beds has never been cut but has been affected by drainage all around it. This was done for commercial peat cutting until the 1980s and, by 2013, Waved Forked Moss was left in only a few patches there. The peat cuttings have now been dammed up, water levels in the uncut peat have risen, and Dr Callaghan has found many more thriving hummocks of it now.
“At Bettisfield Moss, Waved Fork-Moss was growing on an uncut area surrounded by cut peat. Here the peat was much more damaged because, although peat cutting stopped there in the 1950s, the peat had become covered with conifers. These were removed in 2001 to stop them shading and drying out the peat.
“By 2013 the Waved Fork-moss was only surviving in two isolated patches. Dr Callaghan found a few more patches, indicating a spread after forest removal. The BogLIFE Project has dammed and bunded all of the peat cuttings and the edge habitat of the uncut peat around it. We hope that a similar large expansion of this very rare moss will now follow the new raised peat water levels, as it has on the Cranberry Beds.”
Dr. Daniels continues: “Why are we interested in tracking Waved Fork-moss? Being an indicator of a healthy, pristine bog, it is a sign of the success of our work to restore this internationally important peatland. We’ve done this by clearing forests and putting the bog water levels back where they should be – at the peat surface.”
The good news stretches far beyond the 2,500 acres of the Marches Mosses, however. The BogLIFE team are hoping to work with other lowland raised peat bog managers to reintroduce Waved Fork-moss in their peatlands. The moss is easy to grow once introduced, as it reproduces from detached shoot tips. The large clumps on the Cranberry Beds should prove ideal for this.
Once brought into an area, Waved fork-moss is dispersed by wind and passing invertebrates, birds and ground-nesting birds as well as by humans. For instance, it may well be that machinery tracking across the Cranberry Beds, when blocking old drains to rewet the peat, inadvertently helped to spread broken shoot tips across the Moss.
Robert Duff, Natural England Project Manager for the Marches Mosses, takes up the story to share the vision of a healthy Marches Mosses: “The aim of the team here is to have this species spreading across the entire Moss again, as it did centuries ago. It’s a sign of a thriving, healthy, high-quality bog. The recent results are a milestone in ongoing efforts to restore favourable conditions across the whole of Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses.”
Regenerating the peat at the Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses also aids in the fight against the climate crisis by storing carbon. Peat stores even more carbon per acre than trees do and reviving the peat creates additional depth of peat. Conversely, allowing peatlands to dry out releases that stored carbon into the atmosphere.
Visitors are welcome at the Marches Mosses. You might not spot Waved Fork-moss while walking on the trails around the Mosses, but you will see a huge variety of wildlife – plants and animals, birds and invertebrates – under the wide open skies of the expanse of Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses.
If you’ve been thinking it’s rained a lot lately, you’re right – last year was the wettest in recent memory and Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses near Whitchurch and Wrexham felt it too. Gerald Moss, who keeps a nearby weather station, found that 2019 had the highest amount of rainfall in 30 years – 1080 cm (425 inches). Since the Mosses first became a National Nature Reserve in 1990, rainfall has been recorded every month. Looking back, the lowest rainfall was in 1991, when just 494cm (194”) of rain fell. That means the amount of rainfall in 2019 was twice the amount that fell when the NNR records began, showing how variable rainfall has become.
We Brits love to talk about the weather and chats about how the weather is changing are now frequent. Climate change analysis by UK scientists indicates that the climate is changing and will continue to change. Forecasters believe winters will continue to be wetter and summers drier as a result of the changing climate.
The changes at Fenn’s and Whixall Mosses, where huge variations in rainfall – from droughts in some years to floods in others – put more pressure on the rare, specialist bog plants that are basis for the ecosystem’s sustainability.
For instance, Sphagnum moss, the key species in peat generation and carbon storage, grows best in a steady level of about 10cm of water above or below the peat surface. Other plants, such as Purple Moor Grass (Molina caerulea) thrive in the fluctuating water levels experienced over the past decades on the Mosses, creating problems. Large expanses of Molinia have taken over the Mosses, shading the Sphagnum and generally making it difficult for the native bog mosses to succeed. Achieving a more consistent water level as a result of the peat restoration work being done at this rare habitat should lead to less Molinia and more Sphagnum.
The exceptionally high rainfall this winter has made the restoration work on the Mosses more difficult as well. Much of the work being done at Fenn’s and Whixall is to create bunds – low banks that capture rainwater in pools, helping to slow the flow of water off the Mosses to downstream tributaries. High rainfall can make it more difficult for the conservation team to work, slowing the regeneration of this internationally important environment.
Regardless of these record rainfall levels, rainwater is vital to the life of any bog. Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses are a world-renowned example of the rare habitat that can only occur where rainfall is captured on peat. Being naturally acidic when aerial pollution is low, rainwater adds to the high-acid, low-nutrient environment that Sphagnum and other bog plants need to thrive and create additional peat.
Despite the rain, Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Moss are a great place for a walk; there is plenty of wildlife to see, even in winter. Dig out your wellies and come to the Mosses to experience the fresh air and wide open skies of this special, rare habitat. Just remember your umbrella!
A Brief Background to the Mosses
The Marches Mosses – Fenn’s, Whixall, Bettisfield and Wem Mosses – make up the third largest lowland raised bog in Britain, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a European Special Area of Conservation. This peatland was formed over 12,000 years ago when Sphagnum moss began to grow in the wetland formed by the retreat of glaciers. The Sphagnum acidified the water, stopping the decay of plant remains. These built up like a sponge to form the raised expanse of the peat moss, with the pickled water creating an environment suitable for the unique combination of plants and animals that thrive here.
Peatlands, a rare habitat that make up only 3% of the earth’s surface and grow at just 1mm/year, depend on retaining rainwater for their existence. The Marches Mosses began to collapse when the bog was drained over several hundred years, the dried peat was cut for fuel and agricultural and horticultural use, and the edge habitat around the Moss was turned into farmland. The decay of the peat meant that carbon that had been stored for millennia was being lost and by the late 1980s the Mosses were badly damaged.
In 1990 the peatland was acquired as a National Nature Reserve and restoration was begun. This has led to an increase in biodiversity as plants and animals that thrive in the boggy conditions return and repair of the peat has meant an increase in the store of carbon. Because peat stores more carbon than plants, trees and other types of soil, the Mosses are an important weapon in the fight against climate change
Read the latest news from the Mosses by clicking on the front page of the newsletter, below.
Please note that this link will take you to a third-party website.
The former scrapyard is being covered by the removal of turf from nearby fields which were once part of the bog. The fields will be reverted to bog habitat by planting 150,000 ‘microproprogated’ sphagnum hummocks in a seeding operation following the turf-stripping.
This method of bog creation is an innovative experiment in regeneration. It uses local sphagnum collected from the Marches Mosses, carefully cultivated into ‘plug plants’ in a sterile setting and then re-introduced to create the original bog environment.
Degraded sites, where the Sphagnum cover has been lost due to human interventions such as harvesting, peat extraction and drainage, overgrazing, fire and air pollution are slow to recover without further human action. The successful return of Sphagnum moss, by natural recovery or managed reintroduction, is an essential factor for repair of degraded bog habitat.
Although the work was started in November, heavier than usual rainfall has subsequently delayed the project. Works will re-commence when the conditions improve sufficiently.
Thanks to the marking out carried out by Natural England colleagues, bunding work has been undertaken continuously since August and good progress has been made. Large areas of bunding are underway on the North East Fenn’s area. Heavy rain in the autumn has shown how effective the bunds are at holding water on the moss. More bunding will be completed throughout 2020.
The last parcel of conifer woodland north of the railway at Chapel Lane, has been harvested and remaining brash is being removed. The picture below was taken during a visit from Reaseheath College’s Forestry and Arboriculture students.
Elsewhere Natural England is appointing contractors to undertake some broadleaf tree removal and thinning works. This will leave a screen of trees around the edge of the bog and will enable access for the peat bunding works to occur. This work will start in mid-January now that a scrub removal contract, required in advance of peat bunding, has been completed.
The World’s End rewetting scheme is planned to commence in 2020 following submission of a planning application early in the New Year. This carefully designed drainage system will in part divert water away from properties around the Moss Lane area, currently dependent on a mechanical pumping station. The 1826 World’s End Drain was deepened in the 1970s to allow the new pumping station, installed when few appreciated how rare raised bogs were. This continues to draw water out of the NNR and now, as in the East Anglian Fenlands, the drained peaty farmland has shrunk to form a depression and is likely to become progressively ever harder to drain. The pumping system was originally designed to drain water away from two farms, but now serves more properties than originally intended. Natural England are proposing to alter the current set up by introducing gravity-based drainage route which will be integrated with the planned rewetting scheme for the 9 ha of land Shropshire Wildlife Trust purchased in 2017. Not only will this assist in part to prevent the current drainage from worsening it will also serve to help ensure bog habitat on the NNR is protected , making it into the ideal habitat for the flora and fauna that thrive in this distinctive ecosystem. Plans for the complex rewetting scheme at World’s End land are at an advanced stage and ongoing discussions are progressing with property owners affected by it.
There are also plans to build a viewing tower on the boardwalk track near Roving Bridge, which will be accessible to walkers hiking along the canal towpath. Plans have also been submitted for the construction of a new bird hide at Charles Sinker’s Fields at Morris’s Bridge. The hide will allow birdwatcher a clear view across the fields to view the many interesting bird species that visit the site. Watch this space for more details!
On the 74th anniversary of Armistice Day, conservationists working at Fenn’s and Whixall Mosses National Nature Reserve found two World War II practice bombs. The bombs were uncovered while workers were excavating to build water-retaining “bunds” as part of the regeneration of the Mosses near a former bombing range. A specialist in UXBs was employed on site overseeing the works. Part of Fenn’s Moss was used for the five years of WW11 as a practice target range for British, American and Canadian bomber crews flying Wellington, Hawker Hart, Avro Tutor, Harvard and Spitfire planes. Training crews came from several units, including 11 SFTS, Shawbury, 10 FTS, Tern Hill, and units from as far away as RAF Hawarden, Lichfield and Rednal.
The bombing site was set up near artillery ranges that had been created in the First World War. The site had a 700 yard radius with a 36 square yard target. Because it would have been impossible to paint the target onto the peat, it was made of wood, painted white and set up on mounds of peat.
The 8.5lb practice bombs found at Fenn’s Moss are typical of the thousands dropped on the target area. Painted white with green bands on the tail, the bombs were made up of three sections within its moulded Bakelite body: a nose section for the striker; a central section filled with lead-antimony balls and the detonator; and the rear section that was filled with chemicals that created white smoke when the bomb landed. You can still see the white paint on the bombs found in November.
The work that led to finding the bombs is underway to create cell bunds on the Moss. Made of peat, these bunds are essentially shallow dams built in large rectangles across the peat. These capture rainwater, which is needed for Sphagnum moss growth that acidifies the bog and creates more peat. It’s all part of the Marches Mosses BogLIFE project to regenerate Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses National Nature Reserve (NNR).
The Mosses make up the third largest lowland raised bog in Britain and, due to their importance, are a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a European Special Area of Conservation (SAC). Peatland is one of the rarest habitats on earth and, because peat stores more carbon than plants, trees and other types of soil, the Mosses are an important weapon in the fight against climate change. Repairing the peatland has also let to an increase in biodiversity as plants and animals that thrive in the boggy conditions return.
The area where the WWII bombs were found is not accessible to the public. However, there are a range of walking trails at the Mosses, including a History Trail that starts at the Manor House NNR base near Whixall. Here you can learn more about the peatland’s contribution to both war efforts or just have an interesting day out under the wide, open sky of Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses.
