Why are still using peat in our gardens?

Photo: Murdo Macleod for The Guardian

"The government needs to give a shot of adrenalin to its commitment to phase out peat and support the industry to divest away from peat and keep what remains safely protected in the ground not the grow bag."

See the article in The Guardian.

Scotland: Peatland Restoration

Does your peatland look like this?

There is £8 million available for peatland restoration across Scotland through the Peatland Action initiative. Applications for grant funding are open until 31 October 2017 and projects must be completed by 28 February 2018.

Go to the Peatland ACTION webpage for more information about how to apply and the grants available.

(extract from the Cairngorms Nature Newsletter Aug 17)

England: Grouse moors and conservation bodies join forces

Therese Coffey, MP at Wemmergill
flanked by Richard Johnson (Director)(L) and John Pinkney (Headkeeper)(R).
Photo: Dave Mitchell, Natural England

The Moorland Association reports on the new 25-year agreement between Natural England and the Wemmergill Estate, in Co Durham, which amongst other objectives, seeks to develop and maintain a fully functioning blanket bog system.

Dr Therese Coffey MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary at DEFRA, and Dr Rob Stoneman, Co-Chair of IUCN UK Peatland Programme, have visited the estate and both are very supportive of this work.

This agreement is being supported by the Trust's work with Natural England to promote their Outcomes Approach and as Chairman of the Uplands Management Group, which is developing guidance for managing sphagnum mosses, a key component of blanket bog, through a task & finish group led by Amanda Anderson, The Director of the Moorland Association.

Wildfires in Greenland

If wildfires can occur in Greenland, within 70km of the ice sheet, then surely they can happen anywhere.

The fires are thought to be burning peat deposits, which is something that the Trust seeks to avoid through our work with the Wildfire Forums in England, Wales & Scotland and in revising the Muirburn Code for Scotland.

Burning peat destroys the sensitive peatland vegetation to leave bare ground that erodes quickly.  Burning peat releases large amounts of greenhouse gases that had been stored as carbon in the peat, and these gases are drivers for climate change.

See the full report on BBC News.

Scotland: Peatland ACTION re-launch

The Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change & Land Reform, Roseanna Cunningham MSP, has re-launched the Peatland ACTION project.

The Peatland ACTION fund received a further £8 million from the Scottish Government, in January. The investment allows the Peatland Action Fund, which is administered by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), to continue working with its partners and restore a further 8,000 hectares of this precious peatland habitat in Scotland, during 2017/18.

The fund is open for applications on 1st April, but the project team would like to hear about proposed projects now. Updated application requirements and guidance are available from the project's webpages.

In this phase of the project, there is an emphasis on extending the geographical reach to the Western Isles, and for further contractor training. More information will be become available in due course through updates on the project's webpages and posts on social media accounts: @SNH_Tweets and @ScottishNaturalHeritage

The Scottish Government has issued a press release.

A BBC News article includes a video clip with the voice-over provided by Andrew McBride, the Peatland ACTION Project Manager.

Landowners and Managers: what is the state of your peatlands?

Actively eroding peatland

If landowners and managers are unsure about the state of their peatlands, the Peatland Condition Assessment Guide, which has been published by the Trust, provides practical information to help assess their condition.

The assessment process does not require specialist botanical knowledge. Using easily observed features, and illustrative photographs, the guide identifies four categories of peatland condition: near-natural, modified, drained and actively eroding. Identifying these categories is the starting point for establishing the benefit to peatland condition that might result from changes in management and whether or not any restoration work is required. 

The peatland condition categories also link through to Defra-funded research associated with the Peatland Code, and the categories can also be used to estimate greenhouse gas emissions from peatlands. This feature may be useful in making a case for funding peatland restoration projects (see note).

The guide summarises some key points about peatlands and provides some detail about their key features:

Key Points

• Peatlands are important for carbon storage, water regulation and biodiversity.
• The main peat-forming species are Sphagnum mosses and sedges like cotton grass.
• These species can be lost through drying of the peat surface as a result of natural and man-induced changes to drainage, burning and grazing regimes.
• The primary aims of peatland restoration are: re-vegetating bare peat and re-establishing peat-forming mosses and sedges through re-wetting.

Key Features

• Peatlands are not only important within the context of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change; they also support wildlife, food production and good water quality.
• Bare peat is worth nothing; it has little value for grazing, game, wildlife, landscape or access. 
• Peat erosion is not only a direct loss of soil; it also results in the emission of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. 
• Eroded peat can end up in watercourses with implications for water quality, fish and private water supplies.
• The increased interest in peatlands is based on the growing global awareness of how important peatlands are for the range of natural (ecosystem) services that these areas provide.
• Improving peatland condition can provide multiple benefits for a range of natural (ecosystem) services.

Peatland after ditch blocking

The guide is available to download from the Heather Trust’s website.  I also have some printed copies; please contact Anne Stoddart at the Trust, if you would like some of these.  There is no charge for the printed copies, but I would welcome a donation to cover our costs.

I have long advocated that we need to direct more effort at raising the level of awareness within the land management community about peatland.  We need to consider peatland as a valuable asset.  We must accept that it needs sensitive management and landowners and managers are the people to provide this.  I hope this guide will allow landowners and managers to form their own opinion of the state of their peatlands.  If it is established that some management changes would be beneficial or some restoration work is required, I will be pleased to make suggestions about who might be available to help.

I am grateful to Dr Dick Birnie from Landform Research for providing the driving force to produce this guide and to Dr Mary-Ann Smyth and Dr Emily Taylor from the Crichton Carbon Centre for helping with the drafting process.  I am pleased that the Trust has been able to fund the production of the guide and I thank the Peatland Action project for the financial support, which has reduced the cost to the Trust. 

This guide has been produced as a companion guide to the ‘Field guide to Spagnum mosses in bogs’, which was published by the Field Studies Council in 2012, with support from the Trust and other organisations.  The sphagnum guide is only available in printed form – I have a few copies available and it can be ordered from the FSC’s website.

---

Note: For further information, see the output from the Defra-funded project ‘Developing Peatland Carbon Metrics and Financial Modelling to Inform the Pilot Phase UK Peatland Code’:

·               Presentation given in October 2014 – outlines the approach

·              Full project report - June 2015

Peatland Management promoted in London

I was part of a delegation that briefed the Defra Minister, Rory Stewart, MP in London yesterday about peatland management and the application of the Peatland Code.  The others present included Edward van Cutsem (Mossdale Estate), Tom Surrey (Defra), Alex Lawson (Savills), Alastair Martin (Duchy of Cornwall), Roddy Gow (Canongate Partners + IUCN), Clifton Bain (IUCN), the Minister, Johnny Hughes (IUCN), Peter Nixon (National Trust).

The numbers about peatland are compelling: if 100,000ha of degraded peatland is restored, over 30 years the restoration work will result in a net reduction of about 30MT CO2 equiv of emissions to the atmosphere, at a cost in the region of £300m. These are scary numbers, but against the scenario of the Government's commitment to reducing CO2 emissions the figures represent a cost of £13.50 /T CO2 equiv removed.  When compared with the cost of reducing carbon emissions by other means, the peatland option becomes more attractive.

It has been a busy couple of days: on Thursday, we organised a briefing about the Moorland Forum's Understanding Predation project for MSPs in the Scottish Parliament. See the the Understanding Predation blog for details.  It is good that the Trust is getting into the 'corridors of power'.  We know that our ideas have value but this is of no benefit unless we tell people.  These sort of excursions allow us to get the HT message direct into the heart of policy formation.

North Wales Moors - Stakeholder Workshop - 10 February 2016

I am looking forward to attending the stakeholder workshop at the Lake Vyrnwy Hotel, on 10 February.  The workshop is being organised by the RSPB as part of the bid, which is due to be submitted in September 2016, to the EU LIFE Nature Fund for the North Wales Moors.

If approved, the project will focus on: restoration of blanket bogs across the project area, establishing favourable condition on dry heath and aim to achieve favourable conservation status of Merlin and Hen harrier in the Berwyn and Migneint-Arenig-Dduallt SAC & SPAs.

I hope that the Trust will be able to support this project and build on the contacts we re-established in Wales as part of the meeting held on the Rhiwlas Estate last October, in conjunction with the Trust's AGM.  I understand that the numbers attending have been kept small, but it would be good to see other members and supporters at the meeting.  If you are attending, please let me know.

A Different Approach to Road Building on Bogs from Canada

The Canadians appear to have a big problem with providing access across bogs to service their oil and gas industry (have you watched Ice Road Truckers?!).

Edmonton-based Paradox Access Solutions is using nano-engineered material in a honeycomb structure to make resilient temporary roads over sometimes unstable ground.

Burning in the Uplands - My Cup is Half-Full

Details of the RSPB-led Study

A new study led by the RSPB Centre for Conservation Science has revealed the extent of moorland burning across Britain’s upland areas. This is the first time upland burning has been mapped in detail across mainland Britain. 

Using aerial photography and satellite images, 45,000 1-km squares were mapped across Scotland, England and Wales, and revealed that burning occurred across 8,551 of these squares, including 5,245 squares in Scotland.  In the ten-year period covered by the study, from 2001 to 2011, the number of fires recorded increased rapidly by 11 per cent each year.

For more information see the RSPB press release.  The paper has been published in Biological Conservation, Volume 191, November 2015, Pages 243–250.  The abstract of the paper can be viewed online and the full paper is available to download for a fee.

Comment

This study is useful as it helps to build a picture of what is going on, but while it has highlighted the problems, it has not addressed possible solutions.  I suspect that this was not part of the research brief, but increasingly I believe that we need to put more effort into joining problems to solutions, if we are going to make progress.

It is relatively easy to use burning to fuel a rant about the state of our peatlands, but we should remember that these areas were, until recently (very recently in the life of peat), regarded as wasteland.  These are slow moving habitats and it will take a long time, under consistent management, to improve their condition.  I would be among the first to agree we need to improve the way we manage burning in many areas, and through this the condition of peatland, but before we discard the management tools, which after all have got us the habitat we all now value highly, we need to think about how the peatland is to be managed, and by whom.

In the short term, my action plan for peatland includes:

• Continuing to raise the profile of peatland - it is an important habitat that needs sensitive management;
• Encouraging the revegetation of bare peat areas to reduce erosion by wind and water;
• Introducing guidelines for traditional peat cutting (for domestic purposes only);
• Agreeing what long-term management is required to improve the condition of the peatland; and
• For highly degraded sites, seek funding for capital works to, for example: 
• reprofile peat hags, 
• block man made ditches and other drainage channels to raise the water table, and
• introduce sphagnum mosses to wet sites, where absent.

Longer-term action will rely on the owners and land managers to make the right decisions for the management of the uplands and the peat stocks they contain. This is an area that needs to be looked at separately.

We should not forget that burning takes place to support: crofting; upland agriculture and commons management; and deer stalking, as well as grouse moor management. Picking on grouse moor managers and then using the detrimental side of burning as a stick to beat them with is potentially self-defeating. Privately funded grouse moor managers are a significant proportion of the upland work force, and if their efforts can be correctly focused, alongside the full range of other managers in the uplands, they should be seen as part of the solution, not the problem. We need the support of these people to deliver the objectives we seek.

Also outside the scope of the study are the considerable changes that are already taking place in the uplands. As demonstrated by our Golden Plover Award, and the take up of support from the Peatland Action project in Scotland, landowners and managers are beginning to embrace the 'love your peatlands' message. We still have a way to go with this, but momentum is building.

During the 'bogathon’ visits, in Northern England last year, which the RSPB were part of, we agreed that burning should remain as one of the management tools, but it needs to be applied intelligently, not by rote.  We need to adjust burning techniques and rotations to suit the requirements of the land, including peatland, and this may mean less, or even no, burning in some areas.  This might save grouse moor managers some work!  

Also, the alternative of cutting heather, should not be ignored.  Cutting cannot be used everywhere, but the Trust's recent studies have recorded that some grouse moor managers are getting excellent results through cutting alone.  See our Members' Briefing on Heather Management in the Reading Room on the Trust's website.

I believe that the picture is for from being as gloomy as the study would have us believe.  The winds of change have started to blow, and with encouragement I believe that momentum is building behind improving our management of burning and the condition of our peatland.  My cup is half-full!

England: Improving Peatland

In the last 2 weeks I have been on two visits to consider the regeneration of sphagnum moss.

The Peak District

The ascent of Kinder Scout

Last week it was the Peak District and an outing of the new Uplands Management Group (UMG) - the successor to the Best Practice Burning Group.  The Moors for the Future project hosted the visit and we were marched up to the top of Kinder Scout to look at the restoration work the project has been carrying out.  Starting from almost completely bare peat 10 years ago, the transformation has been remarkable and the scope of the project has been extended to include inoculation with plugs of sphagnum moss.

Revegetated ground - top of Kinder Scout

Sphagnum Moss requires wet conditions to grow successfully and this is difficult to achieve on top of hills.  However, the project team reckon that high rainfall can provide good conditions for sphagnum, even where the water table is well below the surface.

The cost of all the restoration work is high (about £12,000 per ha), but the stability of this important area of peat is increasing so that it will stay there long term and not succumb to the combined forces of gravity and erosion by wind and water.

While chairman of this group, I would like to see the Group tackle how to improve the coverage of sphagnum mosses on areas, which are not so critical, and where there is no big funding pot.  The importance of the sphagnum message needs to be demonstrated to land managers, so that they can improve the conditions as part of their normal management.  Tell them clearly what is required and there is a chance it can be achieved; if they do not know the requirement, there is no chance.

Keighley Moor

The USF on Keighley Moor

The Upland Stakeholder Forum met near Keighley, yesterday, and this included a visit onto Keighley Moor, above the reservoir, as guests of Yorkshire Water (YW).  This was one of the moors included in the 'bogathon' visits last year but it was good to go back and bring other members of the Forum up to speed with the work being carried out by YW.

The driver for YW is water quality and their emphasis has been on raising the water table by blocking grips and revegetating bare peat.  To YW's credit they have taken the grouse and farm enterprises with them, and all are enthused by the work.  The gamekeeper, farmer and area officer for Natural England joined the visit and it was great to see everyone working towards a common goal.  This is an example of the Natural England Outcomes Approach working in practice.  More please!

Scotland - More funding for the Peatland Action Project

The Peatland ACTION project has been allocated a further £3m to spend during the current financial year on peatland restoration projects.  This follows the £5m spent up to the end of March and supplements grants available under the new Scottish Rural Development Programme.

For more details and links to online information see the Moorland Forum blog post.

Tuesday: Bog-athon Cumbria

Today was not an ideal day for this, but a hardy team assembled above Mosedale on the east side of the Lake District to take on the worst that the weather could throw at us. In this area, the blanket peat sits on top of the fell and that was where we had to go.  The photo says it all!

This was the final planned Bog-athon visit.  The visits have served to move debate forward and demonstrate that, correctly applied, the Outcomes Approach being introduced by Natural England has value. It is a way of thinking, not a solution in itself, and involves in reaching a consensus about to objectives for the management of the area.  Extending the coverage to include Exmoor and the Lake District was well worth the effort.  If nothing else, these last two visits have served to emphasise how parts of the uplands can be so different, and how a 'one size fits all' approach to their management is a complete non-starter.

Today, grazing was the only management available, or required, for the area of (very wet) deep peat that we looked at, but it must be recognised that it is a delicate balance to maintain the appropriate levels of grazing while providing the farms with enough income to survive.  Also, it was clear that large commons require a large amount of staff input from Natural England to get them into grant schemes and then support the scheme through its life.  The Outcomes Approach that has been at the core of Bog-athon maybe desirable, but there is a question mark over whether NE has the resources to implement it fully.  

Friday: Bog-Athon Exmoor

What, no heather?

Much though the term 'Bog-athon' is overused, it is the easiest way to describe the purpose of the visit to Exmoor, last Friday.  The aim was to bring a moor in the south-west England, into the Bog-athon process, and link to the other work that was carried out in June.

Bog-Athon is a manifestation of the new engagement process being adopted by Natural England.  This provides for early consultation with the owners and managers of the land and is a much healthier process. I welcome this change and wish to encourage this development.  This is why I was happy to travel to Exmoor and take part in the visit with Natural England.  I was also able to use the is it to catch up on the progress of the Graze the Moor project on Molland Moor, that I am running.

During the visit we looked at the peatland restoration work being carried out as part of the Mires Project and discussed other management work.  It served as a reminder that the balance of upland issues is different on Exmoor in the south-west.  We were also able to brief members of the Moorland Initiative Board of the Exmoor National Park Authority in the afternoon.

A New Chairman for The Heather Trust

Antony Braithwaite

At the AGM last week, we said good-bye and thank you to Malcolm Hay after seven years as our Chairman and welcomed Antony Braithwaite as his successor.  In accepting the position, Antony acknowledged the work of his predecessor that had helped to guide the Trust to the most influential time in its 30 year history.  He hoped to continue the upward trend and to ensure that the Trust was well respected and influential throughout the UK.

Finzean House meeting

The AGM was held in the marvellous setting of Finzean House, near Banchory in Aberdeenshire.  This is the home of Donald and Catriona Farquharson and the family turned out in force to support first the AGM and then the discussion meeting that followed.  The discussion meeting was attended by 29 people and was hosted by Andrew Farquharson, who manages the Finzean Estate.  The Estate was the winner of the Golden Plover Award this year, which the Trust awarded in conjunction with Adam Smith (Director Scotland for GWCT and a HT Board member), who was also present at the meeting.  Dr Dick Birnie opened a few eyes with his presentation about peatlands and why the owners and managers of land need to take note of the output of the research into these important areas.

Finzean Estate visit

The whole day was blessed by glorious weather and we were able to make good use of this in the afternoon, when Andrew Farquharson led us on a visit to inspect the estate's management of the heather against the continuous cover woodland. The whole day served as a great demonstration of why the Finzean Estate was a worthy winner of the Golden Plover Award.

IUCN UK Peatland Conference

Monday October 20th - Wednesday October 22nd 2014 at Eden Court Theatre in Inverness, Scotland

Scotland: Peatland ACTION - applications for last call for funding

Announcement from the Peatland ACTION project:

The last round of Scottish Natural Heritage’s Peatland ACTION project is now open for grant applications, with a closing date of:

1st September 2014. 

Potential applicants are reminded that restoration ground-work MUST be completed by 15 March 2015 at the latest. Given the tight time-scale for completion of works, combined with the approaching autumn-winter weather and reduced daylight, potential applicants need to be mindful of the challenges posed. Please be realistic about the type and scale of work that is feasible. We will not fund projects that can’t guarantee completion by this date.

To help you in planning, beyond the closing date, it can take 6 to 8 weeks before formal approval is received. You will not be able to start the work before you receive any formal grant offer we might make.

For guidance, we would welcome applications from those who are confident that they can complete a restoration project in this time period. It will help us if you can submit you application before the 1st September deadline, where possible. This will allow us to process applications and follow up any queries we might have sooner.

Further information for applicants can be found on the project webpage ‘information for applicants.’ This includes standard information on eligibility, application forms and guidance on how to apply.

Types of projects we suggest are feasible in this short timescale are:

• Shovel ready projects
• Ditch blocking
• Scrub removal
• Tree felling – only where felling licences are in place 
• Peatland restoration feasibility
• Restoration plans
• Peat depth and hydrological surveys

Notes:

1. Where trees or materials are removed for sale, you will need to provide detailed information on costs and income. Any profit will offset the amount of grant offered.
2. Do not include projects that require fencing or stock bridges.

Next steps

If you plan to submit an application, could you please register with Peatland ACTION by email (below), providing:

• Name of the project
• Likely level of funding to be requested and expected project cost
• Simple description of the type of work involved e.g. ditch blocking and scrub removal

Help and advice

If you want to discuss your application with a member of the Peatland ACTION team, please emailpeatlandaction@snh.gov.uk.

Future funding

Beyond March 2015, the SRDP will be the main source of funding to maintain and restore peatlands. For those who have applied for Peatland Action funds in the June round we will be contacting you in the next few days

Andrew McBride
Peatland Action Project Manager

Peat Restoration in the North Pennines

Peat restoration can be good news for all interests and the work being carried out in the UK is gathering momentum.  See the article published by Stackyard, yesterday, for details of work taking place in the North Pennines.

Raising water tables by blocking drainage channels (or grips, or groughs) helps to keep the peat wet and reduces erosion by wind & water.  To safeguard the peat long-term, it needs to have vegetation cover and restoring the sphagnum mosses that formed the peat in the first place is a good way to go.  Techniques to reintroduce sphagnum mosses are developing. If these mosses are kept wet after establishment, they will start to form more peat, and capture, then store carbon from the atmosphere.

It is a good thing to be doing especially if in the future, the value of the restoration work is recognised and creates a source of income to offset the costs of the restoration work.

For Peat's Sake RSPB - join the party

It will not have escaped the attention of anyone, with an interest in the uplands and access to the Internet, that there have been some acrimonious public exchanges in the last couple of weeks.  The debate has been hotting up around moorland management and raptor persecution. Due to my preference to present positive management issues, this is not an area that the Heather Trust strays into very often, but on this occasion I have been drawn to comment.

For those who want to follow the debate the exchanges are available on the websites - see the RSPB letter, and the Moorland Association reply.

My view of this sort of exchange is that achieves very little apart from a deepening of the trenches from which the bricks are launched, and the birds that the RSPB seeks to protect are the most likely losers from this continuing trench warfare. I do not deny that the land management community needs to get its house in order, but an approach that risks the alienation of every landowner, land manager, gamekeeper and farmer cannot be the best way of making progress. Management may not be perfect, but the owners and managers of land are the only people who can make a difference. We need to encourage a spirit of cooperation, not alienation, and work together.  With a bit of compromise, there is the potential to deliver lasting benefits for all interest groups.

The bog-athon visits described in the previous post illustrate what can be achieved from a little consensus building. This approach may not increase membership numbers or produce column inches in the same way, but in my view it is much more likely to produce lasting benefits for the upland areas and species that we all work to protect and enhance. The bog-athon has started a process, which has the RSPB at its core, that is capable of delivering real progress.

High Peak - damaged peatland

It is extremely confusing and frustrating that on return from a positive meeting of the burning group, I was met by another missive from the RSPB that seeks to ban burning in the Peak District ‘For Peat’s Sake Stop the Burn’.  This promotes a very different and negative message to that coming out of the bog-athon process.  There is a challenge in the Peak District to repair the damage of the past, but we will achieve little by heated exchange.

Perhaps the RSPB needs to get its house in order and decide what it really wants to achieve.  Then the organisation needs to be realistic about how best to do this.  I would be delighted to to support them where our interests overlap (which would be in many places) but the mixed messages coming out of the organisation at the moment make this difficult, or even impossible.

Come on RSPB - it is time to get off your high horse and join the party.  A united moorland management industry could achieve great things.

Burning on Deep Peat

The Bog-athon in progress

Holiday and a lot of activity have resulted in this blog being quiet for a while.  However, this does not mean that I have not been busy.

One of the main topics that has attracted a lot of activity in England in recent weeks has been burning on deep peat.  As the current chairman of the Best Practice Burning Group, I presided over the 37th meeting of this Group on Monday, this week.  Many are bemused by how could we find enough to talk about to fill 37 meetings, but I can assure that we have done.  Along with others, I have been there from the start, and I can assure you that there has never been any shortage of discussion.

The latest flurry of activity has been spurred on by the Evidence to Advice phase of Natural England’s Upland Evidence Review.  I commented in an earlier post about how this process had lost its way and that an unfortunate amount of heat had entered discussions.  As a way to defuse this, and to allow NE to make progress, what has become known as the bog-athon was set up.  A working group from the main Burning Group visited 3 areas of deep peat in Northern England on successive days. This was pretty intensive, not helped by staying in the same pub on the nights in between, with the inevitable consequences.  However, the intensity allowed us to drill down into areas of discussion that had eluded us at other times.

I was joined on the working group by representatives from Natural England, RSPB, Moorland Association, Yorkshire Water and a landowner / farmer. In addition, the gamekeepers, landowners and NE Area Staff with an interest in the moor joined each visit to provide local input.  The visits took place on Raby Estate, Upper Teesdale; Keighley Moor, Yorkshire; and the High Peak in the Peak District.  These moors represented a good range of habitats and management objectives that allowed the working group to start to develop an approach that would work to deliver multiple objectives, if applied to other peatland.

The Burning Group meeting allowed the working group to present the thinking to other members of the Group.  The diverse membership makes it impossible to develop proposals for guidance, but  there will be a delay before the Group can issue any statement about what we are proposing, as member organisations need to review the proposals first.

Until there is an agreed position from the Group I cannot provide details of what is proposed but let me provide a flavour:

• I have been heartened by the way that a good deal of consensus has developed as a result of the bog-athon visits.
• There is no intention to ban burning on deep peat; it will continue to be available as an important tool.
• There is a need to adapt the way that burning on deep peat is approached; more sensitive use of fire can be beneficial to all interests.
• More sphagnum moss should be encouraged.
• Landowners and managers have the ability to innovate and produce the desired outcomes. 
• Further discussion needs to look forward; chewing over old bones will not be productive.

It is likely to be into the autumn before there is any formal output from the Group, and I am keen that there is a joint communiqué that expresses the view of the Burning Group, rather than rely on separate announcements made by individual organisations.

This is all a big improvement from the loggerheads position we have ended up in at the end of some of the 36 previous meetings.  The problems have not gone away but we have made considerable progress.