After making a generous £16,000 donation towards moorland restoration in the Peak District, Stuart Pomeroy has extended his support by helping to hand-plant plugs of sphagnum moss.

Stuart was joined by friends and family – including his daughters Hannah Dyson-Sutton and Krysy Pomeroy - at Snake Summit to plant sphagnum plugs on the slopes of Bleaklow with the Moors for the Future Partnership.

In tough terrain, close to the Pennine Way, the team planted about 2400 individual plugs, each containing five species of sphagnum moss. They covered an area of two hectares – the size of about three football pitches – planting one plug every 2.5 square metres.

The volunteers were also shown other restoration work in the area, including types of mini-dam and re-vegetation work.

Sphagnum planting at Snake Summit

Stuart made his donation through the Peak District National Park Foundation and, overall, his contribution will fund the planting of 20,000 sphagnum plugs over 20 hectares of moorland.

The work is part of a wider project - Moor Water – in which Moors for the Future Partnership is working with Severn Trent and the National Trust to restore blanket bog and boost nature across this important area of remote upper moorland.

Sphagnum is a bog-building moss. By holding water for longer on the moors, it helps to improve water quality and lowers the risk of floods. As the moss grows, it traps carbon dioxide from the air and stores it as peat – a vital element in the fight against climate change.

Planting a sphagnum plug

Stuart said: “I’d like to thank everyone at the Moors for the Future Partnership for their collective enthusiasm, knowledge and support for the hugely successful volunteer sphagnum planting day. We all learned so much about the complexities of moorland restoration as well as gaining so much satisfaction from playing a small part in the planting process.”

Chris Dean, head of the Moors for the Future Partnership, added: “Stuart’s generous donation has contributed to our essential work on the moors of the Peak District and South Pennines. These moors should be covered in sphagnum moss, as they once were, but industrial pollution has left them almost completely devoid of this fabulous bog-building plant. Planting sphagnum has a great success rate so Stuart and his daughters should be able to come here in a few years’ time and see the tremendous difference their work has made.”

Read more from the Glossop Chronicle

Click here for more of the latest news

Click here to read the latest edition of the paper online

Click here to find out where you can pick up a copy of the paper