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THE FIRST phase of ambitious plans to restore important peatland has been completed.

A total of 200 kilometres of grips (drainage ditches) have been blocked in the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and more than 400 hectares of blanket bog restored.

Altogether the AONB has 9,500km of grips - 3,000km of which have already been blocked - and the aim is for 95pc of the total to be blocked by 2010.

Landowners were encouraged to drain peatland after the Second WorldWar to boost food production.

But over the years many have become badly eroded, increasing rain water run off which has been partly blamed for flash floods and increased flooding in lowland areas.

More recently its important carbon storage capacity has also been recognised.

Paul Ledbitter, Peastcapes project manager, said: "We estimate that the North Pennines AONB has about 660m tonnes of carbon dioxide locked up in the peat, this equates to about 30 years of the Drax power station emissions.

"A key threat to this carbon storage system is the drying of peatlands because of their widespread drainage.

"By blocking up the moorland grips we can effectively keep the carbon locked up."

The first part of the AONB Partnership's Peatscapes project started in December 2007 and was completed this week.

Almost 60km of the 200km was in County Durham and the remainder in Northumberland and Cumbria.

The work, funded by the County Durham Environmental Trust, can only be done between December and April to protect spring and summer nesting birds.

Specialist contractors used low ground pressure excavators to create regular peat dams in the grips to stop the flow of water.

Once blocked, the ditches fill up and begin to re-vegetate, slowly restoring sphagnum moss and cottongrass that peat is made from.

Blocking the drains also helps water companies by reducing water discoloration.

Newcastle University is now measuring its success at two moorland sites.

Further work will be carried out with the agreement of landowners each winter to meet Natural England's 95pc target.

2:02pm Friday 9th May 2008

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