Peatlands are among the UK's most valuable habitats. They store carbon, help reduce flooding, improve water quality and provide a home for some of our rarest wildlife. Yet across Lancashire, Greater Manchester and North Merseyside, many of these remarkable landscapes have been damaged by drainage, agriculture and peat extraction.

At Lancashire Wildlife Trust, our Peatland Team is working to reverse that decline by restoring and protecting peatlands across the region. From the peatlands of Greater Manchester to the lowland bogs of Lancashire, the team is helping these landscapes recover for the benefit of wildlife, people and the climate.

The Peatland Team's work stretches across a network of internationally important sites, each with its own unique restoration challenges and opportunities.

On Little Woolden Moss and Cadishead Moss, part of the historic Chat Moss landscape, the team is helping transform former peat extraction sites back into thriving lowland raised bog. Through blocking drainage channels, creating bunds and raising water levels, specialist peatland plants such as sphagnum moss and cottongrass are returning, alongside dragonflies, common lizards and breeding birds.

At Astley Moss, one of the largest remaining fragments of Chat Moss, restoration focuses on maintaining the delicate balance of water levels that allows peat-forming vegetation to flourish. The site supports important populations of invertebrates and birds, including species such as curlew, merlin and short-eared owl.

Further north, the team works at Winmarleigh and Cockerham Moss, Lancashire's largest remaining lowland peatland. Here, restoration efforts are helping to safeguard a nationally important carbon store while creating habitat for rare species including the large heath butterfly and specialist bog plants that depend on healthy peatland conditions.

Healthy peatlands are often described as natural climate champions. They lock away carbon accumulated over thousands of years, absorb rainfall during periods of heavy weather and provide habitat for an extraordinary range of wildlife.

Unfortunately, around 98% of the region's lowland peatlands have already been lost. That's why restoration is so important. By rewetting damaged peatlands and encouraging peat-forming vegetation to return, the Peatland Team is helping these habitats recover their ability to store carbon, support biodiversity and build resilience against climate change.

No two days are the same. One day might involve surveying vegetation on a restored mossland, while another could see the team overseeing large-scale restoration works, monitoring water levels or working with landowners to improve peatland condition across the wider landscape.

The team also collaborates with contractors, volunteers, local communities and partner organisations to deliver restoration at scale. Together, they are helping reconnect fragmented peatland habitats and creating larger, healthier landscapes where wildlife can thrive.

Every drain blocked, every bund created and every hectare restored brings us one step closer to a healthier future for nature.

Whether working on the recovering landscapes of Little Woolden Moss and Cadishead Moss, conserving the wildlife-rich habitats of Astley Moss, or restoring the vast peatlands of Winmarleigh and Cockheram Moss, the Peatland Team is helping to secure the future of some of the North West's most important wild places.

Together, they are proving that damaged peatlands can recover, and that restoring these remarkable habitats benefits wildlife, communities and the climate for generations to come.