Geoff Eyre's Lessons from Over 30 Years Restoring Peak District Moorland
Quick summary
Derbyshire farmer Geoff Eyre says his 'cool burning' method more than doubled burning days without harming peat.
He grew heather from smoked seed, regenerating over 4,500 acres of Peak District moor between 1993 and 2006.
He says cotton grass grows from seed for £100s a hectare, against £300K for hand plug-planting.
He argues rewetting alone cannot stop wildfires and wants mandatory Wildfire Risk Assessments and controlled burning certificates.
Moorland Regeneration is a 2022 report by Derbyshire farmer Geoff Eyre, edited by Robin Maynard. In it, Geoff explains how he brought heather back to species-poor moors and why he thinks wildfire policy must change.
Geoff has farmed in the Peak District all his life
Geoff farms in the Hope Valley and is semi-retired from an agricultural merchant business. He is a qualified agronomist and was 73 when the report was written.
He began managing moorland over 50 years ago, helping his father-in-law run 6,500 acres of leased moor.
In 2005 he received an Honorary MSc from Liverpool University. That year he also won the Purdey Award for Game and Conservation for his Howden Moor regeneration work.
Geoff says cool burning more than doubled his burning days
Under the Environmentally Sensitive Areas scheme, 10% of heather was meant to be burnt annually. Geoff says it only ever reached 1% or 2%, because paraffin wick lighters limited burning to around 10 days a year.
He then developed a fuel-assisted lighting method, similar to Australian drip torches. By his account, it more than doubled his burning days and gave cooler fires that took the leaves off the heather but left the stalks and moss layer intact. He called this 'cool burning'.
Geoff says a Mars bar placed level with the peat surface before a burn can be retrieved unmelted afterwards. He adds that he has never had a wildfire under his management.
He grows heather from seed on poor ground and bare peat
Geoff approached heather as a crop, harvesting seed with equipment built in his farm workshop. He found smoking the seed improved germination, and says he could then grow heather within 4 years on species-poor Molinia and Nardus grasses, bracken and rush.
He says he regenerated over 4,500 acres in the Peak District between 1993 and 2006. He estimates over 500 square kilometres seeded, though he admits this is largely undocumented.
In the late 1990s, North West Water asked him to revegetate bare peat that was washing into streams. Finding pH as low as 2.4, he limed a first 60 acres at Arnfield by helicopter and sowed a seed mix he had trialled on the moor.
"From my experience and evidence, revegetating bare peat is a simple exercise", he writes. He says various authorities have used his methods at £4K a hectare extra, because they fly in cut heather by helicopter where he used ground wheel markings to shelter the seed.
He cites an area of hand plug-planted cotton grass at £30 a sq m (£300K a hectare), when he says it grows from seed for just £100s per hectare.
Geoff wants 90% of funding to go directly into the local upland community, with 10% on administration. He says he once regenerated 1000 acres in one season, with no office staff and half a side of A4 paper.
He says burning and spraying cleared bracken from over 300 acres
Geoff says bracken is spreading across the uplands at just over 5% annually. He burns off dense bracken and lets it regrow. In late July to early August, he would spray the regrowth with asulam or glyphosate.
The dead bracken is burnt again and the ground sown with a fast-growing nurse crop, such as wavy hair grass and sheep's sorrel. Returning fronds need follow-up for up to four years.
After 8 years, he says he has cleared bracken from over 300 acres and seen a significant increase in wildlife, including curlew, lapwing, ring ouzel and brown hares.
He believes wet moors still burn when fuel builds up
Geoff says most recent large wildfires have been on blanket bog, naming Marsden Moor, Crowden, Darwen and Dovestones. He blames biomass build-up under Natural England's management, with less grazing and controlled burning.
In his view, rewetting cannot stop fire in a long dry spell, because the whole moor dries out. He points to Darwen Moor, where a wildfire took out 400 dams and destroyed the planted sphagnum.
He does agree that all peat should be revegetated and man-made drainage ditches blocked. He argues that local farmers and contractors, paid fairly, could do both jobs better.
He says his own restored areas at Arnfield and next to Stalybridge burnt in 2018, after Natural England policies had stopped controlled burning there. He calls that a critical error.
"It is a concern, rather than something that I'm proud of, that I have apparently the only moor in the Peak District with an active wildfire mitigation policy in place," he writes.
He wants mandatory Wildfire Risk Assessments, with size limits requiring firebreaks, and a controlled burning certificate for those doing the work. He also wants ELMS to reward keepers and hill farmers, whom he calls the finest moorland fire-fighting team.
Key figures
All figures are Geoff's own.
Over 4,500 acres regenerated in the Peak District between 1993 and 2006
Over 500 square kilometres seeded, by his own largely undocumented estimate
Over 300 acres cleared of bracken in 8 years
Hen Harriers back in the Peak District for the first time in 140 years, nesting on his restored areas on four occasions
£300K a hectare for hand plug-planted cotton grass, against £100s per hectare from seed
Why this matters
Land managers like Geoff hold decades of practical knowledge about preventing wildfires and helping nature recover, and the MA believes that knowledge should be properly tested and put to work alongside peatland restoration.
