At BeadaMoss®, we supply peatland restoration projects with sustainable micropropagated Sphagnum moss. This has positive environmental impacts, and planting our Sphagnum moss is a natural climate solution.
Planting Sphagnum moss is often a vital part of peatland restoration. Sphagnum moss plays a huge role on damaged sites to stop carbon emissions and convert it back to a carbon sequestering sink. Sphagnum moss is also important for habitats and biodiversity, and for preventing flooding and wildfires.
What are peatlands? Why are we restoring them?
Peatlands – also known as moors, or bogs – are a type of wetland habitat with distinctive biodiversity, often with several metres of peat depth. Peat is partially decomposed vegetation formed in saturated anaerobic conditions. Peatlands are excellent at storing carbon; they store over 30% of the world’s soil carbon, yet only cover 3% of land area!
Unfortunately, they have been damaged extensively for many reasons over the years, and in some cases are still being damaged. Sometimes this is due to drainage for agriculture, or from pollution, or from peat extraction. In the UK, up to 80% have been damaged in some way.
Sphagnum moss plays a huge role in natural peatlands. It helps keep them wet, sequesters carbon, and protects the existing peat carbon store.
In peatland restoration, re-wetting activities are often completed before Sphagnum is planted, such as gully blocking. Organic soil that is re-wetted but not vegetated reduces emissions compared to drained peatland, but can still emit up to 1.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per hectare per year.
However, a natural vegetated peatland can sequester up to 3 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per hectare per year. This is in addition to supporting the ecosystem, and protecting the existing peat carbon store. Therefore, planting Sphagnum moss and other moorland plants is an important part of peatland restoration.
Our Peatland Restoration Work
We grow sustainable micropropagated Sphagnum moss to supply peatland restoration projects. A BeadaHumok® is a clump of Sphagnum containing multiple species for optimum re-establishment and easy handling.
BeadaHumok® are packaged in light-weight and compact rolls of 20. Each BeadaHumok® is hand-sized, making hand planting on the moors easy. They are ideal for bare, sparse, or vegetated sites or with dominant vegetation, such as Molinia.
We also grow other moorland plants for restoration, such as cottongrass, bilberries and crowberries. Planting these increases plant biodiversity, stabilises bare peat and allows a near-natural peatland to be re-created.
We currently supply projects throughout the UK, and in Europe, and we tailor our offer to each customer’s requirements.
