But, the UK's raised peatbogs are now reduced to a fragment of what they once were. In 1996, the NationalPeatland Resource Inventory (NPRI) was published representing the most comprehensive assessment of the lowland raised bog resource in Great Britain to date. It found that of an original 69,700 hectares, only 3,836 hectares (or 5.5 per cent) of lowland raised bog could still be described as in a “near natural” state.1

His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales has compared the UK's remaining peatbogs to tropical rainforests, because of their high conservation importance. In a support letter to the Peatbogs Campaign Consortium (PCC) written in 1998, His Royal Highness said: “As this millennium draws to a close, I wonder how we will be remembered - as the generation which squandered the UK's last lowland bogs, or as the generation which saved them for the enrichment of the third millennium?”

It is now 2001 and the destruction still continues. And - according to local people - it's worse than ever.

England's largest remaining lowland raised peatbogs are Thorne Moor SSSI (2000 ha's) and Hatfield Moor SSSI (1400 ha's) in South Yorkshire and Wedholme Flow SSSI (780 ha's) in Cumbria. All three sites are still suffering from industrial scale peat extraction being carried out by the US based multinational: The Scotts Company.

The corporation is able to exploit planning consents that pre-date SSSI designation. Unfortunately, this loophole was not addressed by the (otherwise excellent) Countryside and Rights of Way Act.

Parliamentary interest in peatbogs
There has long been a strong all-party consensus amongst MPs concerning the urgent need to end peat cutting on our lowland raised peatbogs:
*    Over 360 MPs signed EDM 11 in support of greater wildlife protection (tabled by the Member for Brighton Pavilion in the 1998-1999 Parliamentary session). The resolution gave direct support to a “Wildlife Bill” which included measures that would have protected peatbogs.
*    The issue has been addressed in a number of adjournment debates on wildlife. On 3rd November 1999, for example, Caroline Flint MP (the Member for Don Valley) commented that “Scotts have turned large parts of Hatfield moors into nothing more than a lunar landscape. ...Wecannot ignore the issue”.
*    Environment Minister Michael Meacher has described the devastation of UK peatbogs on a number of occasions as an “intolerable situation”.

But the designation process has suffered from serious delays. The Government was originally planning to confirm their proposals by October 2000. It was not until late January 2001, however, that the first list of sites was sent to the European Commission and, to dismay of conservation groups, it did not include the peat sites.

Investigations in the US, have shown that this is not the first time that authorities have moved to stop peat cutting by The Scotts Company, and it would seem that the corporation is now adept at using delaying tactics to slow down legal proceedings.

In 1990, the US Government filed a suit against The Scotts Company seeking a permanent injunction against peat extraction at a site in New Jersey. But the company's lawyers have held the suit in “administrative suspension” ever since and, over ten years later, the case is still not resolved.
UK conservationists are now worried that the company is using the same delaying tactics here. The UK Government's statement that it is “still in negotiations” with The Scotts Company reinforces these worries.

Their concerns are particularly acute in the case of Hatfield Moor, because there is evidence that another season of cutting may result in the base peat layer being breached. This would destroy the very sensitive hydrological integrity of the bog, and so compromise the options that are available for restoration. Meanwhile, evidence continues to be collected on how past peat cutting has led to local species extinctions. The beautiful golden Baltic bog moss Sphagnum balticum, for example, is one of the rarest species within the Back from the Brink programme run by the wild-plant conservation charity Plantlife.

Earlier this year, Plantlife's project officer for the species, confirmed that it no longer grows on Thorne Moor, the species being a victim of degradation through peat extraction.

As the next peat cutting season draws perilously close, local people and conservation groups are still nervously waiting for the Department of Transport and Regions (DETR) to confirm SAC status for England's three largest lowland raised peatbogs, before the damage starts again.

Garden retailers, TV gardening celebrities and evensome peat companies have accepted that a peat-free future is “...not only the preferred route but potentially inevitable”.2 Rather than use its position as the world's largest garden product company, with a turnover of over US $1.7 billion, to assist this transition to peat-free gardening, Scotts has chosen to fight it.

The company recently announced that it will re-launch its peat products under the highly successful “Miracle- Gro” brand, and they ran a £2 million TV advertising campaign in the run up to Easter 2001, to boost UK sales and boost their market share.

The huge marketing effort is a direct challenge to the educational and consumer campaigns run by conservation groups over the last decade. But Scotts are also deliberately misleading consumers in their attempt to increase sales, because no-where on the 'Miracle-Gro' packaging does it mention that the product is peat-based.

At the corporation's recent Annual Shareholders Meeting, Chief Executive, Mr. 'Chuck' Berger even boasted about how the company has turned “...dirt into dollars”.

If we wait until the peat cutting starts again this spring, it may be too late.”

2. B&Q (1998) How Green is my Patio? - The Third B&Q Environmental Report.

3. Comment taken from transcript of speech made by Mr. Charles Berger, Chief Executive and CEO of The Scotts Company, at the Annual Shareholders Meeting, January 18th 2001.