Peatland restoration in Northumberland

Border Mires is a group of 58 peat bogs in and around Kielder Forest on the Northumberland and Cumbria border. The Border Mires peatland restoration project, on which Northumberland Wildlife Trust has worked with several partners, is one of the earliest and longest-running projects of its kind in the country, having a 50-year history.

The large-scale project, which restored some 2,000 hectares of peatlands across the Border Mires around Kielder Forest, cleared conifer plantations, blocked thousands of agricultural ditches and created 130 wader pools to help rare birds such as curlew to return to the area. 

Restoration and conservation of large peatland areas is a vital contribution to The Wildlife Trusts’ 30 by 30 vision, as well as to the fight against climate change.

Back to case studies map