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BBC Radio 4 - 92 to 94 FM and 198 Long Wave

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OPEN COUNTRY

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	PROGRAMME INFO

	Saturday 6.10-6.35am Repeated Thursday 1.30-2.00pm


	From Shetland to the Scilly Isles, Open Country travels the UK in search of the stories, the people and the wildlife that make our countryside such a vibrant place. Each week we visit a new area to hear how local people are growing the crops, protecting the environment, maintaining the traditions and cooking the food that makes their corner of rural Britain unique. Email: [email protected] Postal address: Open Country, BBC Radio 4, Birmingham, B5 7QQ.


	LISTEN AGAIN


	Listen to Open Country for 21 January


	PRESENTERS

	HELEN MARK and RICHARD URIDGE



	More about Helen Mark




	More about Richard Uridge


	PROGRAMME DETAILS

	Saturday 21 January
Fenn's, Whixall & Bettisfield Mosses National Nature Reserve is part of Britain's third-largest raised bog - so big that it's visible from space. The Mosses formed through glacial action at the end of the last Ice Age - open water meres become mosses as peat builds up over thousands of years, here this created a large dome of peat towering up to 8m above the landscape - a raised bog, fed only by rainwater. Dr Joan Daniels, English Nature Site Manager for the Mosses, takes Richard on a tour of the 10,000 years of history which lie trapped in the peat, pickled in the acidic conditions - including the highest number of bog-bodies found in the UK. Less than one per cent of England's lowland raised mires have intact bog vegetation. The other 99 per cent have all been destroyed or damaged by use for farming, forestry, fuel or peat cutting. Joan's job is helping to restore the Mosses. They're important not only because of the rare species and habitats that they contain but because they can permanently trap and fix carbon and are thus a good defence against global warming. Entomologist Pete Boardman talks to Richard about how the Mosses contain regionally important breeding pools for an exceptional diversity of invertebrates including dragonflies, butterflies and spiders. He himself found the first ever larvae of a particular species of crane fly there. Bill Allmark is a third generation peat cutter, who is now a poacher-turned-gamekeeper - he explains to Richard how he's now helping mend the Mosses, and tells of the old days of peat-cutting. And Gladys Mary Coles is known as The Poet of the Mosses. She's written a whole series of poems called "The Kingdom of Sphagnum" and says there is something really special about the wind and warmth of the area, as if the Mosses are embracing you. And even in winter they are powerful, haunting places. Email Open Country: [email protected] The BBC is not responsible for external web sites

	RELATED LINKS BBC Holiday Category BBC Country file