That’s LIFE

That’s LIFE – Restoring Humberhead Peatlands

That’s LIFE – Restoring Humberhead Peatlands  was a major LIFE+ project seeking to put in place the infrastructure required to restore stable water levels across the complex of degraded lowland raised bogs in South Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire centred on Thorne & Hatfield Moors National Nature Reserve (NNR). Alongside infrastructure designed to maintain stable water levels, the project also sought to increase the population of nightjar (for which the SPA is classified) and helped to raise the profile of lowland raised bogs through public engagement, educational activities and academic research. The project began in June 2014 and finished in June 2019. Work took place across two Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and one Special Protection Area (SPA).

The project was led by Natural England with Doncaster East Internal Drainage Board as a delivery partner. Other partners, including Thorne & Hatfield Moors Conservation Forum, Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council, Environment Agency and North Lincolnshire Council, helped to design and scope the original project and oversee delivery of the project outcomes through the steering group.

The project was required to off-set the impacts of several hundred years of artificial drainage for agriculture and peat extraction, latterly at an industrial scale. Peat milling ceased on site in 2003 however it was left largely unvegetated with the drainage infrastructure left intact. This resulted in a degraded bog habitat with fluctuating water levels, reducing the likelihood of natural re-generation of the site.