ABOUT 100 square miles of Yorkshire’s precious peatlands have been restored in a multi-million pound project that aims to preserve vital habitats and help cut global warming by reducing the amount of carbon escaping from them into the atmosphere.

The achievement is a significant milestone for the Yorkshire Peat Partnership, because it means nearly a quarter of Yorkshire’s damaged peatlands - many in the Dales - have been restored and an estimated 29,500 tonnes of the damaging greenhouse gas CO2 prevented from being emitted, a major cause of global warming.

This is equivalent to the amount of carbon produced annually by 62,000 UK households.