- Thanks to Mick for the words and Nathan for the photos.
On the morning of a beautiful November day - crisp and cold, with hoarfrost in the dells where the sun hadn't yet reached - thirteen volunteers ventured up onto the Kinder plateau.
Such a large number was more than could be taken up in the NT Land Rovers, so quite a few opted to walk up from South Head farm, which was serving as the car park.
The day's task was making small dams out of stones airlifted on to Kinder for this purpose. The dams form barriers in peat gullies and will catch peat which would otherwise be eroded from the moor. Once enough peat has collected behind these mini dams, they can be planted with cotton-grass to further slow the loss of the peat.The rangers estimated that this would happen in about eighteen months. As well as actively trapping peat, the gully-blocking reduces the flow rate of the flash streams that form after rain. As the particle carrying capacity of a stream or river is proportional to it's flow rate, this means that the slower streams will carry less peat and other material off the moor. (If anyone is interested in reading a report about gully-blocking on South Pennine moorlands, you can find one here: moors for the future
The group were working in the gullies of the catchment area of Edale Head, above Jacob's Ladder. We finished the task at 2:30 and those walking enjoyed a more leisurely stroll back to South Head than the uphill trek. The rangers were surprised and pleased that all the planned gully-blocking in that area was finished and were just left with several groups of empty sacks to be helicoptered down for refilling.
No comments:
Post a Comment