Last spring the Nature group helped Staffordshire Wildlife Trust and the South-West Peak volunteers with Sphagnum moss planting at sites on the Roaches that had been badly burned a couple of years ago. We were delighted this autumn when Jon Rowe, the SWT Roaches warden, sent us this photo of successfully regenerating moss, along with the news that 60% of the plug plants had survived, a better rate than expected. So, many thanks and congratulations to all involved - one small step for Nature and the climate!
Over the past few months, the Nature group have been talking about setting up market stalls to promote green manures, peat-free growing, etc.
We’re very excited to report we now have confirmation that we’ll have a monthly Saturday market stall in Leek from March onwards (the week to be confirmed), which if successful we hope to extend to elsewhere in the Staffordshire Moorlands. We’ll be looking for volunteers to help run this stall, so if you can spare a few hours each month, do get in touch.
As part of our stall, but also for our peat-free campaign, we’ll be looking at the best way we can all persuade our local nurseries and garden centres to offer peat-free compost and to stop selling peat-based compost, which could include everyone asking when they go shopping, or dropping in a peat-free campaign postcard. Come and join the next Nature group meeting and help us work out the best approach!
We plan to offer advice on peat-free composts on our stall. One suggestion has been to display samples of these composts, so people can look at the range available before buying, but to keep things COVID-safe, it would have to be looking only, not handling. We’ve decided that we need your help to create a list of tried-and-tested peat-free compost recommendations. We would like to know what you think of any brands of peat-free products that you have used – whether the experience was good or bad and why you like/dislike them.
We’re also looking at opportunities to gain funding for tree planting, but first we need to hear from you if there are any suitable spaces that you know of. And, if that’s not enough to be keeping you occupied over these next few weeks, you can have your say on the National Park's new Local Plan Review - the Local Plan contains the planning policies that are used to make decisions on the hundreds of planning applications received each year. They are asking everyone to take part in a survey (it should only take about 20 minutes) about the Local Plan and the new challenges the Peak Park faces.
The survey is open until 7th February at:
https://www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/planning/policies-and-guides/the-local-plan
Look out for more details of all of the above and more in the next MCA newsletter. As always, you can get in touch by email -