MORE than 12,000 acres of vital upland peatbog in Yorkshire have been brought into restoration in the last year, a new report reveals.

As well as saving unique habitats and landscapes, the Yorkshire Peat Partnership's (YPP) peatland restoration programme is helping to lock up millions of tonnes of carbon that would otherwise escape into the air.

Healthy peat is a perfect carbon storage system. The YPP estimates that Yorkshire's 237,000 acres of blanket bog (more than a quarter of England's total peat bog) locks away more than 47 million tonnes of carbon.

The trouble is that since the second world war, a combination of drainage programmes, overgrazing, acid rain and airborne pollution have been taking a dreadful toll on Yorkshire's peatlands. And as they degrade and dry out, the carbon locked up in them is released.

That's why the YPP, which is led by the York-based Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and funded by Defra, the Environment Agency and other organisations, was set up in 2008 to embark on a major programme of peatbog restoration.

Drainage ditches are being dammed to raise the water table and stop peat drying out.

And areas of peat that are eroded or bare are being 'innoculated' with sphagnum moss to try to restart the peat-growing process.

In the year up until March 31, the peat partnership brought more than 12,000 acres of peatland - mainly in the Dales and North York Moors - under restoration.

It blocked up almost 100 miles of grips and gullies, to help prevent peatland drying out. And it planted more than 76,000 sphagnum moss 'plugs' to get damaged peat growing again - as well as 132,000 crowberry plugs and 173,000 plugs of cottongrass.

In all, since the programme began, the YPP estimates that it has carried out restoration work on more than 90,000 acres of Yorkshire peatland - that's 38 per cent of Yorkshire's total blanket bog.

The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust's peat programme manager Dr Tim Thom said: "This important work helps to re-establish healthy blanket bog in Yorkshire’s drained and damaged uplands. As well as helping to hold water and peat on the moors and keeping millennia of carbon locked in the ground, this provides valuable habitat for some fascinating and beautiful wildlife.

"By replanting our peatlands with native bog vegetation, we stabilise the peat and protect it from erosion; we create wet conditions that allow important food species like cranefly to thrive; (and) we produce cover for ground nesting birds and shelter for invertebrates."

Dianna Kopansky of the Global Peatlands Initiative added: “It is wonderful to see peatlands being recognised and valued.

"This work by YPP to restore Yorkshire’s blanket bogs is so important not just for Yorkshire, but in developing and demonstrating restoration techniques that can be used across geographies.”