Kinder Peat Erosion Peter Judd, long-standing BMC Hill Walking Volunteer T
he path along the southern edge of Kinder Scout plateau is a joy to walk, high above Edale Valley, with fine views across to Great Ridge. Of course the plateau itself is metres deep in peat, but out on the edges most of that peat is long gone leaving a pleasant rocky path. Yet some sections still have their peat cover, the protective vegetation cover long gone, creating a glutinous quagmire of ankle-deep squelch. So, naturally, we wander inland seeking an escape onto firmer, still vegetated ground. And the consequence? An ever wider section of peat exposed. This isn’t just mud, this is peat: thousands of years of compressed sphagnum moss, one of the UK’s most important carbon stores and by eroding it we’re letting that captured carbon escape! And it’s getting worse. But what’s the answer? We’re rightly told we should stick to the path, not wander onto the margins, but that’s not easy when the alternative is oozing black stuff filling every gap in
your boots. How about laying a line of quarry slabs, just as National Trust have already done over the way on Brown Knoll turning tens of metres of wide boggy path into just a metre- wide ribbon of slabbed path with the margins rapidly regaining their vegetation. But this costs tons of money and we surely shouldn’t just drive a motorway of slabs everywhere? I found myself calf deep again, up near the Woolpacks, earlier this winter after a rainy period. Surely as an experienced hiker I should know better? We watch the weather forecasts avidly before our adventures to keep ourselves safe, when high winds are forecast we’d never choose a route with an airy ridge to cross. So why am I not using this same information to keep my favourite hills safe from erosion too? I’ll play my part, I’ve learned my lesson, I’ll not be up there again when conditions will mean my passage will do the greatest damage.
R Just one of the many areas with eroded peat on Kinder Scout.
SUMMIT#105 | SPRING 2022 | 29
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
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