Blanket Bog Land Management Guidance

This guidance was created by the Uplands Management Group, a group of land management practitioners, statutory and voluntary groups, who were requested by Defra to work with Natural England to develop a programme of awareness raising on best practice management of blanket bog. This was done via a ‘Bogathon’ which helped develop consensus on the importance of blanket bogs, ‘what good looks like’ and how this contributes to delivering agreed outcomes. A ‘Sphagathon’ subsequently looked at the importance of sphagnum mosses and the range of techniques that are available to use sphagnum in restoration. It also considered how restoration could be achieved over a larger geographic scale and how it could be delivered as part of day-to-day management by land managers. Much of the guidance focuses on the need to reduce burning of peatlands and shift to less damaging management methods.