The hills around me, once you’ve climbed enough, up past the last farm buildings, beyond where even the most curious of sheep want to go, turn into a cloth of ripe peach pinks, creams, neon greens and rich biscuity browns of the mosses that drape over these seemingly difficult, high hard places. This soft covering is blanket bog, an acidic peat habitat found across the UK. Blanket bogs are some of the most extensive semi-natural habitats we have and make up 13% of our landmass. Around 70% of our drinking water seeps through them.

It’s odd to think of bogs being the beginning of so much of our ...

 

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