Dr. Joan Daniels, MBE – Rewilding the Mosses

March 15, 2022

By Dr. Joan Daniels, MBE, Natural England’s Marches Mosses BogLIFE Project Officer, at Fenn’s, Whixall & Bettisfield Mosses National Nature Reserve. 

For 30 years, I have been lucky enough to lead Natural England/ Natural Resources Wales rewilding of the centre of Fenn’s, Whixall, Bettisfield, Wem & Cadney Mosses Special Area of Conservation (the Marches Mosses), which straddles the English/Welsh border near Whitchurch in Shropshire, and Wrexham. We recently celebrated the 30^th anniversary of the establishment of the NNR and I’ve paused to reflect on this incredible place and my work and the work of our Marches Mosses BogLIFE team in rewilding it.

Together, the Mosses form a 1,000ha rainwater-fed lowland raised bog – a climax community. They developed here because of the amazing powers of Sphagnum bogmoss, creating cold, water-logged, nutrient-poor acidic conditions. Over 10,000 years, this resulted in the accumulation of a saturated peat dome 10m higher than the current flat, drained landscape. The bog swallowed up the wildwood and spread over the plain of glacial out-wash sand, to the limits of its enclosing moraines.

However, for the last 700 years, this huge wilderness has been drained for agriculture, peat cutting, transport systems and more recently forestry and even a scrapyard. When I first walked the site in the late 1980s, I despaired. The centre of the Moss had a peat cutting drain every 10m, peat was stacked as far as the eye could see and mire plants and animals had been eradicated from most of the site. It looked like a desert – a desert in desperate need of being saved.

A large increase in the rate of commercial peat cutting in the late 1980’s led NGOs to form the Peatlands Campaign Consortium to save the Mosses and others like it. The campaign was driven by Shropshire Wildlife Trust’s local volunteer Jess Clarke. North Wales Wildlife Trust staff, including myself, and SWT staff, aided by brave Nature Conservancy Council staff, particularly Mark July and Paul Day, pushed to get the UK government to take on the restoration of this devastated site.

We succeeded in convincing the Nature Conservancy to acquire the centre of the Moss in 1990, because there was not enough raised bog in good condition to meet Britain’s international conservation obligations. The new peat-extraction company agreed to sell because they found the Mosses peat quality was inadequate to meet their site-rental costs.

We have worked doggedly to restore this precious peatland ever since. Natural England and Natural Resources Wales have acquired progressively more and more of the bog, clearing trees and bushes that were smothering the peat, damming ditches and installing storm water control structures. Shropshire Wildlife Trust mirrored this on the smaller 28ha Wem Moss at the south of the peat body. The knowledge and skills of the Fenn’s Moss NNR team of ex-peat-cutters, particularly Bill Allmark, and Andrew and Paul Huxley, appointed with me in 1991, has been invaluable in understanding how to re-construct the Mosses.

In 2016, an opportunity to purchase more peatland on the edge of the Mosses led to a successful funding bid for the five-year, £7 million pounds BogLIFE Project, funded by European LIFE and the Heritage Lottery Fund. Its goal is to make a step-change in the rate of rewilding of 660ha of the Mosses through a partnership of Natural England, NRW and SWT. I was more than willing to stay on to help with project management, designing and implementing the restoration projects and have found the work extremely challenging and rewarding.

Importantly, the BogLIFE Project addresses a problem affecting all British raised mires – the loss of our mire edge “lagg” communities (fen, carr and swamp). The high water table of the “lagg” is important as it sustains that of the mire’s central expanse.

I’ve been involved with the team in buying another 100ha of marginal forests, woodland and fields, clearing trees, disconnecting under-drainage, stripping turf, re-seeding 10 acres of cleared peat with Sphagnum and using a new technique of linear cell damming or “bunding” to restore water levels.

We’ve moved “lagg” streams, which were canalised within the peat to lower the marginal water tables during the Enclosure Awards some 200 years ago, back to the bog’s margin, to enable disconnected areas of peat to be hydrologically reunited.

• 

• 

• 

The BogLIFE Project also involves adjusting dams on the central mire areas and bunding peat areas that haven’t got a cutting pattern to dam. We’ve even cleared up the scrapyard and have tried to tackle a problem that affects most nature conservation sites nationally – high levels of aerial nitrogen pollution and, at the Moss, its consequent high coverage of purple moor-grass.

So why did we bother with this mammoth struggle on such a damaged peatland? In the 1980s, the main impetus for the fight to preserve the Mosses was its relict biodiversity: Its rare specialist bog wildlife, its bog rosemary and cranberries, all three British sundew species, lesser bladderwort, white-beaked sedge…

• 

• 

• 

…its raft spiders, large heath butterflies and moth communities including Manchester Treble-bar, Silvery Arches and Argent and Sable moths.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Despite the devastation, this huge site provided corners for rare wildlife to hide in, waiting for the restoration of mire water tables. Those creatures, and the hope that we could rebuild a site worthy of them, drove me on.

Today the vital bogmosses have recolonised many areas and flagship species like the white-faced darter have been dragged back from the brink of extinction. Now, in spring, rare mire picture-winged species like Idioptera linnei dominate the cranefly community and the Mosses’ spider community is breaking national records. Regularly, invertebrate species, often new to either countries or counties, like micro-moth Ancyllis tineana emerge from hiding, and the wetland bird community now is of national importance.

But today the reason for rewilding the Mosses is also restoration of the ecosystem services provided by a functioning bog – regulation of water quality and flow, particularly important with increasingly-frequent flood events, and the re-pickling of the bog’s vast carbon store so its release doesn’t add to climate change and also encouraging future carbon sequestration.

I’ve seen the growing pride for the restored Mosses in the local community and the increasing numbers of visitors from far afield, boosting the local economy. These are a testament to the success of rewilding this quagmire and will be helped by further sensitive provision as the BogLIFE Project nears completion.

• 

• 

• 

Wading through knee-high bogmoss on Clara bog in Central Ireland some years ago brought home to me the potential resilience of bogs and their capacity to regenerate themselves after damage if their water supply is restored. The bog was acting like a giant shape-shifting amoeba; localised marginal drainage for domestic peat cutting had made the crown of the bog dome move, channelling more water and nutrients to a shrunken damaged area, accelerating the accumulation of bogmoss and, ultimately, restoring the bog’s profile. 

We need to achieve this resilience at the Marches Mosses too. Particularly with the challenges of climate change, the only viable option for the landscape is a return to functioning raised bog.

Now, when I walk through the Mosses, I marvel at what I see. As a scientist, I am proud of what we’ve accomplished, while I see the work that remains to be done. Personally, I am amazed at the wildlife that make the Mosses their home, at the wide open skies and tranquillity of the place.

What will the next 30 years bring? The last 30 has just been a blink in the eye of a 10,000 year old bog. This project we’ve begun must continue. The threat of climate change is urgent and growing. Saving the Mosses and protecting the three million tonnes of carbon stored in its peat will prevent that CO2 escaping into the atmosphere. Continuing the work we started 30 years ago will ensure a home for the biodiversity on this precious site, store even more carbon and maintain a special place for people to reconnect with nature. What better way to spend my career?

Dr Joan Lesley Daniels, M.B.E. Natural England’s Marches Mosses BogLIFE Project Officer, Fenn’s, Whixall & Bettisfield Mosses NNR, professional biography:

• 1968 to 1971 gained a first class Honours Botany B.Sc. degree at Manchester University and from 1971 to 1974 gained a PhD on The vegetation of the Berwyn Mountain blanket peats from Manchester University under the supervision of peatland expert Dr John Tallis.

• 1974 to 1984 employed as a Consultant to the Countryside Agency preparing a management plan for Cannock Chase AONB/ SSSI heathland and valley mires and running a lowland heath grazing experiment.

• 1984 to 1985 worked as an Assistant Conservation Officer for Greater Manchester and Merseyside for the Nature Conservancy Council, including working on heathland and bogs.

• 1985 to 1986 working for Cheshire Wildlife Trust as a sites surveyor of heathlands and bogs.

• 1987 to 1991 worked for the North Wales Wildlife Trust as their Conservation officer for Clwyd, acquiring and managing their nature reserves including heathlands and bogs.

• 1991 to October 2016, worked as Senior Reserve Manager for Natural England and Natural Resources Wales at Fenn’s, Whixall & Bettisfield Mosses NNR, located near Whitchurch, Shropshire and Wrexham in Wales – organising the repair of Britain’s 3^rd largest raised bog SSSI after its near destruction by drainage for commercial peat cutting, forestry, transport systems and agriculture.

• In 2014 awarded an M.B.E. for services to nature conservation.

• October 2016 to the present, working as a Project Officer for the six-year £7 million Marches Mosses BogLIFE project (LIFE15 NAT/UK/000786). The project aims to cause a step change in the rate of restoration of Fenn’s, Whixall & Bettisfield Mosses NNR and Wem Moss NNR. The LIFE project is led by Natural England working in partnership with Natural Resources Wales and the Shropshire Wildlife Trust. The project is financially supported by LIFE, a financial instrument of the European Commission and the Heritage Lottery Fund. Joan’s role is to design, commission and implement the major restoration projects.

Countryfile Revisits the Former Scrapyard on the Mosses

March 8, 2022

If you watched Countryfile on Sunday 27 February, you saw a quick update on the former scrapyard on the Mosses. We’d like to fill you in on the work that’s been done since Countryfile visited in 2016.

As you saw on the broadcast, the six acre scrapyard operated on the edge of Whixall Moss for about 50 years. Sitting on deep peat that was historically part of the Mosses, it posed a high pollution risk to the bog from oil and other contaminants. It also constrained the restoration of the adjoining, very sensitive bog habitat.

One of the aims of the BogLIFE peatland restoration project was to return the site and surrounding area to nature by cleaning up the scrapyard, dealing with the risky ground pollution and exploring the potential to create a new visitor centre for the people coming to see the adjoining restored National Nature Reserve.  

Shropshire Wildlife Trust, as part of the BogLIFE Project, stepped in and bought the scrapyard in 2016 after a fund-raising appeal. A remediation plan was agreed with the Council and Environment Agency and work began.

As the Countryfile team reminded us, BogLIFE and Shropshire Wildlife Trust staff and volunteers, with LIFE, Heritage Lottery Fund and other support, removed over 700 tonnes of vehicles, 70,000 tyres and other materials from the scrapyard site, in order to clear the site and stop the damage to the peat.

The original Countryfile story mentioned plans for a visitor centre; these were altered during the feasibility study stage. Instead, visitor facilities such as the new bird hide on Sinker’s Fields and the Mammoth Viewing Tower on the edge of Whixall Moss have been installed for visitors to the Mosses to enjoy.

• 

• 

In October 2019, a group of volunteers did a huge amount of work to finish the clearance of the scrapyard site. Working over several days, they filled a giant skip with over a tonne of scrap metal.

• 

• 

• 

Shortly after that, a specialist contractor began work to cap the non-concrete polluted areas with a natural cover material that would create the conditions for a bog edge habitat. They scraped grass turf that was covering peat on nearby eight-acre land and used that to cover the contaminated areas. Work stopped during the pandemic but was completed in February 2022. Following specialist remediation advice and because of the very high expense involved, the concrete areas will remain in place to avoid the risk of inadvertently releasing settled pollution.

The space looks bare right now, but should green up soon from residual seed contained in the turf. Over the course of the next year, grasses and sedges should cover the area and, over time, provide an increasingly attractive home for a variety of wildlife.

It’s over to mother nature now – we expect that the ex-scrapyard will quickly and naturally develop, adding to the diversity of this area as well as helping to protect the adjoining Mosses. Recently a barn owl has been seen quartering over the area, an indication that wildlife is already returning and taking hold.

You can help us to track progress of this new habitat: when you’re out for a walk on the Mosses, stop by the former scrapyard, take photos of the birds, plants and other wildlife that you see around this area of the Mosses and post them on our Twitter site: @meresandmosses. Together we can watch the transformation of this site from a highly polluted area to a wet woodland.

Mosses Banners a Big Hit at Theatre Severn Event

February 25, 2022

On Wednesday 23 February 2022, a group of some 50 guests joined in a celebration of the Marches Mosses Banners Project, “peat-surface-sky” at Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury. Members of the Wem Youth Group worked with artists Sue Challis and Kate Johnston to create three, seven metre tall banners, which bring the Marches Mosses peatland to life.

The youth group members were joined at Theatre Severn by The High Sheriff of Shropshire Tony Morris-Eyton and Shrewsbury Mayor Julian Dean.

• 

• 

This project came out of a collaboration between the Wem Youth Group, Shropshire Wildlife Trust and Natural England. It is part of an overall project called “Mosses and Marshes”, led in the UK by local artist Andrew Howe, who is working with Australia-based artist Kim V. Goldsmith to make links with another wetland of international significance at the Macquarie Marshes in New South Wales.  The project was supported by an Arts Council England grant.

Anna Martin, Marches Mosses Events Officer, Shropshire Wildlife Trust, collaborated with the artists and supported the youth group members to learn more about the Mosses. She is very proud of the work the group achieved: “What was wonderful about this project was that it gave local young people a chance to really get to know this important place on their doorstep. The project has had real depth, created lasting memories and a sense of connection to the Mosses for the young people involved.”

The banners remain on display until 28 February at Theatre Severn, where they can be viewed whenever the theatre is open. We encourage you to take a look!

---

Storm Eunice Heads for the Mosses

February 17, 2022

The Met Office have issued an Amber Warning of Wind for Friday 18 February, including the Marches Mosses. As a result, we recommend you keep an eye on weather updates and put your Mosses walk plans on hold until the storm has passed – perhaps save your woolley cap and wellies for a Wonderful Weekend Winter Whixall Walk? Whew. We reckon we’ve just used up our “W” allocation for a while!

Focus on Wem Moss – Part of the Marches Mosses

February 12, 2022

NOTE: This post contains a link to an external website.

Wem Moss remains an ancient piece of wilderness, an outstanding example of a lowland raised bog.

Overview

Wem Moss covers 28 hectares (nearly 70 acres), just 3% of the total 1,000 hectare area of the Marches Mosses. However, it represents the best area of bog habitat on the Mosses, in its history and geology, wildlife, near destruction and restoration by the project team.

Wem Moss is the most southerly of the  Fenn’s, Whixall, Bettisfield, Wem and Cadney Mosses that make up the Marches Mosses. It and Cadney Moss are part of the same peat body and are connected to the main Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Moss site by a neck of peat linking it to Bettisfield Moss on its northern flank.

Sitting in a basin surrounded by higher ground to the east, south and west, Wem Moss is surrounded by a thick ring of trees which have encroached onto the Moss since the 1960s. Along with the other areas of the Mosses, it’s part of the Fenn’s and Whixall NNR and is an SSSI site. Wem Moss is also a Shropshire Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve.

Damage to Wem Moss

While Wem Moss was damaged by peat cutting and drainage over the centuries, it suffered much less than the main Mosses, leaving it as a nearly intact lowland raised bog. In fact, Wem Moss is made up of two peat domes, each around 85m high, intersected by a shallow, linear stretch of lagg.

While peat on Wem Moss was never cut commercially, it was cut by local residents for fuel. They used the “Whixall Bible” method of cutting, which created long pits that later flooded. As a result, the surface is very uneven from these cuttings and cracks left by drainage.

Two large drains were cut in the 1800s: the Border Drain at the north that dates from 1823 and was deepened in 1958 and again in 1983; and the Southern Boundary Ditch, which marks the southern edge of the peat body. These were installed to drain the peatland before people understood the importance of preserving the peat with its amazing carbon store.

Drainage led to the slumping of the northern dome and cracking of the peat at the surface. Experts estimated that, by early in the 21^st Century, the dome had lost 30cm in height. Multiplying that by the large area of the dome gives an idea of the vast amount of peat – and carbon – that was lost.

Wildlife also suffered from the damage to the peat. As the site dried out, willow, alder and birch trees took advantage and spread across the Moss. By the early 2000s, only small fragments of the rarer mire community, including bog-specialist plants like sundew and white beak sedge, remained. These were localised and vulnerable to further damage.

Repairing the Damage and Preventing Further Loss of Peat

Restoration work began in 1999, when an interceptor drain was installed. This runs parallel to the Southern Boundary Drain and has two purposes: first, to prevent nutrient-rich mineral soil from entering the peat and, second, to control water levels on the Moss.

The rare open bog community relies on favourable conditions being in place. Most importantly these are a wet and squelchy water table and an acidic, low nutrient water chemistry, fed by clean rainfall. Where enriched water from mineral soils occurs, it produces conditions that allow more competitive plants like grasses and trees to get a foothold; these can, over time, encroach and shade and dry out the bog plant community. A healthy bog plant community is a sign that the carbon store locked in the peat below is protected from release; it’s also a sign that vegetation is sequestering carbon from the atmosphere.

Beginning in 2003, Shropshire Wildlife Trust teams and volunteers blocked additional, smaller drains and installed sheet piling to keep water on the peat. These were sheets of corrugated plastic buried vertically into the peat around the site. These teams also began the difficult task of removing the trees and other invasive plants.

Since the start of the BogLIFE restoration project in 2016, the BogLIFE project team and the Trust’s Reserve Manager and volunteers have repacked the peat to create low bunds in a cellular pattern to better retain the rain water and managed the growth of trees and invasive plants.

Wildlife on Wem Moss

Restoration work has resulted in an encouraging revival of fortunes for a range of the scarcer bog plants such as the golden bogmoss Sphagnum pulchrum and bog myrtle, the only site in Shropshire where it’s found. Large heath and brimstone butterflies have been spotted, along with birds such as willow warbler and chiff-chaff. Raft spiders live on the edge of the deep ponds.

• 

• 

Archaeology and historical features

Like the rest of Marches Mosses, Wem Moss is about 12,000 years old, formed at the end of the last Ice Age. Pollen samples from deep in the peat suggest the Moss began as a water body, became a swamp as plant life moved in, then a sedge fen, reed carr and finally peat.

Tree stumps have been found in deep peat, indicating that woodland may have covered the surface in drier climate periods. Unlike on Fenn’s and Whixall Mosses, no bog bodies have been found.

A 1631 map shows the same basic outline as the Wem Moss we know today. An 1818 map called it “Blackford Heath” while later maps and folklore called it “Wem Heath” before the site became known as Wem Moss.

Visiting Wem Moss

Wem Moss provides a sense of untamed wilderness and isolation for visitors. Entrance is over a wooden bridge, through a squeeze stile and then through the trees to the open Moss. This is a flat peat bog, so can be very wet and soft at times with some deep pools and uneven ground.

You can find more information and directions to Wem Moss here.

Sinker’s Fields Hide Progress Update

February 4, 2022

You may have seen the new hide going up on Sinker’s Fields when you’ve been out for a walk along Moss Lane. The hide may look finished and we know you’re eager to use it to watch the birds on the flooded fields. But we’re not quite there yet: there’s still a good deal of work to be completed on the hide and the area around it before we can welcome you in for bird watching. So please be patient and watch this space for updates.

• 

• 

In the meantime, wildlife on the peat are starting to stir and birds are just beginning to return to the Mosses. So why not head over there for a winter’s walk while you wait?

Join us for a Mosses Bog Dog Walk on Sunday 6 February

January 27, 2022

• 

• 

Joey the dog and his pal Chalky will lead a Bog Dog walk on Sunday 6 February and they’d love for you to join them. The walk is for dog walkers who want to learn more about what lives on the Mosses as well as how and why the Mosses are being restored.

Naturalist Stephen Barlow will be helping Chalky and Joey to explain the habitat and how dogs and wildlife can enjoy the Mosses and all it has to offer. Stephen is also the Natural England Volunteer Warden on the Mosses, so he has loads of experience he can share with you about the amazing wildlife that thrive on the Mosses.

“Take the Lead” is an ongoing initiative aimed at helping dog walkers learn more about what they can do to protect the wildlife that live on the Mosses while they’re out for a walk with their pooch. For instance, we have ground-nesting birds in the nesting season as well as ground-roosting birds that are present year ’round. We need to protect them and their habitats while allowing dogs – and their humans – to enjoy the amazing landscape of our precious peatland.

Marches Mosses National Nature Reserve Senior Manager Pete Bowyer is keen on the project: “Dog walkers form a large part of our visitor community and we thought it would be nice if they had a walk focused on them and their needs. Chalky and Stephen know the site well and will make the walk fun and informative.”

Joey the Dog will be bringing his pal Mike Crawshaw, the Mosses Community Engagement Officer, on the walk. Mike added, “Joey loves walking here, and this is his opportunity to make new friends.”

If you and your own Fido want to come along and make new friends, please email Mike on [email protected] , or call the Natural England team on 01948-880362 for further information.

Sinker’s Fields Progress Update

January 20, 2022

Work continues on the Sinker’s Fields area as construction of the hide began earlier this month. While good progress is being made on the building, there’s still lots more to do on the surrounding area before the we can welcome visitors for birdwatching. We’ll keep you updated on progress. In the meantime, here are some photos of the building works.

While you’re waiting for work at Sinker’s Fields to finish, you can always visit the Mosses for a winter’s walk on the marked trails. Or head out to the Mammoth Tower for a bird’s-eye view of the expanse of our precious peatland.

Marches Mosses in New Peatlands Guide

January 14, 2022

The Marches Mosses are included in a new book. Entitled “The Peatlands of Britain and Ireland – A Traveller’s Guide”, the book has information, maps and travel notes for 28 of the most famous peatland sites in Britain and Ireland including our own Mosses.

In the book’s Foreword, Dr. Tony Juniper, CBE and Chair of Natural England, reminds us that “Britain’s and Ireland’s peatlands comprise some of our most precious and evocative landscapes…healthy peatlands can support a sustainable future, not only for wildlife but people, too.”

The author, Clifton Bain, delves into the structure of peatlands, their uses over centuries, archaeology and wildlife. He then discusses each of the 28 peatlands with a summary of their history and current conservation work. In the section on the Marches Mosses, Bain describes the cell-bunding that’s been installed to ensure that rainwater is kept on the peat, as well as writing about the wildlife that has returned to live on the Mosses.

You can see the Mosses for yourself by taking a winter walk on the marked trails or stroll up the Llangollen Canal towpath from Morris’ Bridge to the Mammoth Tower for a bird’s eye view of the expanse of our precious peatland.

Tree Works Starting on Bettisfield Moss on 10 January

January 7, 2022

As part of the final year of peatland habitat restoration work under the Marches Mosses BogLIFE project, tree works are planned at Bettisfield Moss, beginning on Monday 10 January 2022. The works are planned at the southeast band of trees trees around the edge of the Moss, near the World’s End car park.

The work will be done by a reputable contractor and should take two to three weeks. The World’s End car park and the walking trails will remain open. Please feel free to go for a winter’s walk on Bettisfield Moss but do keep safe and follow any notices about the tree works.

Why are we doing this work? The aim, as far as possible, is to keep a substantial band of woodland and tree cover along the edge of Bettisfield Moss. At the same time, we want to enable the deep carbon-rich peat the underlies the area to be kept wetter to protect the peat. This will keep the bog habitat in the centre of the Moss wetter and also reduce the release of carbon dioxide from the currently drier peat beneath the band of trees.

What will happen? A series of linear corridors, each about 8 metres wide, will be created by selective removal of trees through the tree canopy. This will enable access for machinery in February to ‘repack’ the degraded peat soil to create linear peat ‘bunds’. The bunds help slow the flow of the rainfall from these areas and generally give rise to a higher water table on the Mosses. The works will be sensitively marked out by National Nature Reserve staff. In addition, some thinning works will be carried out to create a habitat link to Shropshire Wildlife Trust fields along Moss Lane.

How can you find out more? You can read more about the reasons for these works in a previous Meres and Mosses post here.