Plait, Kinder Scout

Edale, Peak District, Derbyshire, UK

This is the western end of Vale of Edale, where river Noe starts. This was the last bit of the circular walk over Kinder Scout I took with my wife. Oh, it was so good to hike almost non stop for 6 hours. The view above looks idyllic but it is not the full picture.
The plateau of Kinder Scout is losing its delicate biological balance and erosion strips plant cover off the peat bogs. We saw helicopter air-dropping fertilizer and heather seeds as part of an attempt to stop the erosion. Exposed peat oxides, releasing stored carbon into the air, it is also swept off by water exposing bare bedrock. Blanket bogs took thousands of years to develop and most of them are endangered by centuries of overgrazing, pollution, fires. More on the topic here