SRA Annual Report 2023-24: Somerset Levels and Moors peat trials
In March 2022, the SRA agreed to part-fund the running of a trial scheme of payments for the preservation and restoration of peat in two to four small areas of the Somerset Levels & Moors. Areas of wet low-lying peaty land are important to the SRA because they can act as a buffer against flooding. The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) is keen for lessons to be learned from a trial so that Environmental Land Management schemes (ELMs) can “reward farmers and land managers for producing public goods”, such as preventing carbon dioxide (CO2) loss from lowland peat.
Two landowners are taking part. Many more expressed an interest but involvement in other schemes meant they were not eligible. Trials began at the start of 2024 on a few fields on Queen’s Sedgemoor near Glastonbury and a much larger area of nearly 100 acres on Lang Moor near Westonzoyland. Trials will finish at the end of 2024.