Westhay Moor - Paul Eaton
Westhay Moor
Reclaimed from the remnants of industrial-scale peat extraction, Westhay Moor is home to the largest surviving remnant of lowland acid mire in the South West.
About Westhay Moor
Most of Westhay Moor is reed bed created from peat voids left as a result of industrial peat extraction where all the peat has been removed. Westhay does have 30.54 acres of mire – remnant lowland acid bog, with 2-3 metres of peat remaining between 4500 and 6500 years old. This once would have been 8m deep.
Somerset Wildlife Trust has done everything possible to stop this peat drying out over the last 5 decades and have achieved some success with the return of some fantastic peatland species now thriving such as sphagnum mosses, round-leaved sundew and micro plume moths.
Ham Wall RSPB Nature Reserve, Somersel Levels, Somerset, June 2011 - Paul Harris/2020VISION
The story of peat
Our UK peatlands store an amazing 3.2 billion tonnes of carbon. When considered globally, this is even more impressive, as they cover just 3% of land area but in that pack 30% of all soil carbon.
Somerset Wildlife Trust’s Reserves category winner (18 and over) - Westhay Moor National Nature Reserve, 2024. Image: Frances Barr
Peatland habitats
Most wetlands are peat-forming. When the ground is too wet for vegetation to decompose, a dark, organic matter called peat forms.
©Danny Green/2020VISION
Land Management and agriculture on functioning peatlands
Read about the optimal management of lowland peat...
