Interesting blog by Gill Wrigley, Sphagnum project officer, Calderdale Council

Sphagnum moss holds twenty times its weight in water.   Once it was the most abundant plant on the hill tops of Calderdale, soaking up the water as soon as it falls, keeping the peat wet and slowing the flow of water into our steep sided valleys.

The Calderdale sphagnum project is a four-year project funded by The National Lottery.  As part of the project, we have developed a way of growing ten local species of sphagnum.  These are grown from samples of sphagnum moss that have been collected locally.   We are educating other conservation organisations about how to grow sphagnum so that they too can repair their peat bogs.

Read more