...although if you were driving past, you might not believe it to be such a special place. You may note the white cottongrass heads in early summer but aside from that, it might look like a jumble of purple moor grass and a patch of willow trees.

This site, though, has been my office for the past six months, and the diversity of wildlife it provides for is undeniable. For such a little site compared to our upland peat bogs - approximately 40 hectares -  it is home to a catalogue of species. My regular walk across the site starts at the southeast corner of the bog where I cross Black Sike, a man-made drainage channel, and head through the rushes towards the raised dome.

The raised dome of the bog is characteristic of a lowland raised bog. For thousands of years peat has accumulated to form a dome that sits higher than the surrounding land scape. When functioning naturally, it holds rainwater and is covered in bog plants. Sadly, this isn’t the situation we face on modern day Swarth Moor. Traditional peat cutting, drainage channels and over grazing has caused the dome to dry out and become dominated by purple moor grass.  

In 2016, Yorkshire Peat Partnership teamed up with Natural England through a rewetting project, funded by Tarmac, Stories in Stone. The restoration of the dome involved the construction of a series of low peat dams to create a web of ‘cells’ across it. These cells are holding back rainwater and helping to rewet the dome. This will eventually reduce the dominance of purple moor grass and encourage the return of bog plants such as cottongrass, sphagnum moss and the lovely sundew.

Walking along the edge of the dome, you can already see the effects the restoration work is having. Several shallow ponds have formed in the cells and are filling up with cotton grass. Dragonflies and frogs are already making use of these ponds and loving every moment of it.

From the boardwalk on the west side of the bog, accessed from the public right of way, you can see the dome rise in front of you and see the patch work of cells. From this boardwalk, I have seen snipe, kestrels, sparrowhawks and I’m sure if I was to visit at dusk, I’d see a barn owl flying overhead. This site provides for so many species that need a wild bog as a home or hunting ground.

2024 has been a year of dragonflies for Yorkshire Peat Partnership with the start of Dragons in the Dales, a species recovery project funded by Natural England. This project has Swarth Moor at its centre, the lagg fen in particular. If you head southwest along the track from the boardwalk you will soon be looking over the lagg fen with its ponds and more purple moor grass.

The lagg fen is a nationally rare habitat that occurs around lowland raised bogs; a ring of water surrounding a raised bog where the acid rainwater runs off the dome and meets mineral deposits. This creates a unique habitat that supports a group of specialist fen plants. In the areas of bog remaining within the fen you will find marsh violet, bottle sedge and marsh cinquefoil.

The next phase of work is planned to restore the fen, by re-raising the water-levels. Contractors will be on site with their low ground pressure diggers and expertise to construct specially designed dams. When constructed, the dams will slow the flow of water and catch peat that is currently eroding and being swept away. This change in hydrology will encourage growth of bog and fen plants and reduce the dominance of purple moor grass. The restoration will also protect the archaeological records stored in the peat.

The second part the works is funded through our species recovery project, Dragons in the Dales. The project aims to gather data on the dragonflies already on Swarth Moor and conduct the research needed to translocate white-faced darter to the site. Part of this plan is to install three dragonfly ponds in the fen to help grow the population of dragons and hopefully have a new species flying about in future!

The white-faced darter is a lowland peat bog specialist. It loves acidic pools and the aquatic species of sphagnum moss, feathery bog moss (S. cuspidatum); this is its preferred place to lay its eggs. With the decline and degradation of these habitats, this species is now extinct in Yorkshire. This is extremely sad as this species was first recorded in Yorkshire at Thorne Moss. To see it return would be a wonderful addition to a bog that already supports 12 species of damsel- and dragon- flies.

Three of the species here are dwindling across the UK:  common hawker, black darter and emerald damselfly. These species are declining due to climate change, increasing temperatures and erratic rainfall. Also, ditch installation (and associated drainage) and peat cutting are threatening their bog pool habitat.

The ponds are being built with the hope of supporting these three species, especially in their larval state. This is the state dragonflies spend most of their lives in; a small prehistoric insect that lives under the water, a deadly insect if you are the right size for consumption as these nymphs are skilled predators and spend their time gorging on small insects, mosquito larvae, tadpoles, small fish and even other dragonfly larvae.

Common hawkers are a large dragonfly with a dark body (thorax) and a blue, green and yellow spotted abdomens. As dragonflies, they zoom over the bog and ponds catching and eating their prey in the air. In their underwater form they require larger and deeper ponds than other species, as their longer life cycle requires permanent water coverage thought the seasons.

Black darter is another bog species, the only black dragonfly in the UK. They dart from their perches at the edge of the pond to catch their prey, returning to the same spot to start the hunt again. They prefer oligotrophic (low nutrient and high oxygen) bog pools but will breed anywhere from drainage ditches to lakes. They do well in sheltered sites with trees nearby to rest on.

Emerald damselfly are as bright green in colour as the name suggests. These elegant damsels prefer to emerge from shallow ponds with a lot of emergent vegetation. They will also use temporary pools, which dry out in the summer months.

All the needs and preferences for these dragonflies have been used in designing the three ponds to support their population growth. We hope to see them in use next summer.

Swarth Moor is a small haven for dragonflies and many other rare and important species. My time spent on this site has shown me how a pocket of nature in the form of a small bog can be a real lifeline for so many species. Even in its recovering state its wonders are endless, and I can’t wait to see how this site recovers and possibly grows its species count even more.