It’s only when people understand something that they come to care about it and want to see it restored or protected. We wanted people to understand what a precious resource they have right on their doorsteps. This thinking led us to create our ACE Bogs (Access, Citizen science and Engagement on Bogs) project. Working with and on Denton Reserve, above Ilkley, we recruited a platoon of volunteers from community groups, local schools, naturalist societies and walkers to engage with their peatland through citizen science.  Through their monitoring activities, ACE Bogs volunteers played a vital role in assessing how restoration has been improving Denton Reserve’s peatlands. They also gained an understanding of and sense of responsibility for these magnificent brooding landscapes. We wanted to take them one step further.

For those of us that work in peatland conservation, we already know why these wide wild places are so special. It’s a visceral experience being out there, though, hundreds of metres up, on challenging terrain and often in the worst weather that Yorkshire has to offer. Not everyone can make it out to experience these remote locations for themselves; there might be social, financial, cultural and physical barriers to accessing our uplands.

To help communicate the wonder of these wuthering landscapes, we connected our volunteers with artists to capture their responses. A series of artist-led workshops enabled volunteers to express their responses to peatlands in visual art, poetry and music. Volunteers worked with Keighley-based visual artist, Naseem Darbey, and Skipton-based musician and poet, Sarah Smout, to reflect upon and respond to their experiences on peatlands. The entire project was documented on traditional photographic film by photographer, Juliet Klottrup.

By capturing and then communicating these experiences with people facing barriers to access, we hope to help them share in the sheer wonder of Yorkshire’s upland peatlands.

To mark the end of the project, its art will be exhibited in Ilkley. The exhibition will feature observational drawings from volunteers guided by Naseem; Sarah’s compositions - and even audio-recordings of sphagnum moss - inspired by the peatlands; Juliet’s photographic documentary of ACE Bogs from start to finish.

The exhibition runs from 12^th to 27^th April at Ilkley Manor House, which is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 11:00 to 16:00. ACE Bogs is funded by Nidderdale National Landscape’s Farming in Protected Landscapes programme.