The arduous process of restoring fragile moorland by hand could be revolutionised with a new spray-on technique.

Regeneration is essential to cut greenhouse gas emissions because moorlands trap large quantities of carbon that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming.

The new technique means that instead of putting every new plant in the ground individually, conservationists will spray deteriorating moors with fragmented moss from a helicopter.

A trial will take place in the Peak District, where several square miles of moors have lost the bog plants that protect the peat underneath from eroding. Tests conducted already this year on a smaller scale, using fragmented sphagnum moss, have proved so encouraging that they are to be expanded to a landscape scale.

Sphagnum moss, which can hold up to 20 times its own weight in water, was one of the main plants keeping the layer of vegetation on upland moors in place but vast swaths of it were killed by pollution and by agricultural drainage schemes.

Horticultural specialists have now worked out a way of propagating large quantities of the moss, which can still grow when cut into fragments.

“You only need a few cells to get it growing,” said Chris Dean, of Moors for the Future. “This could revolutionise restoration work throughout the country if we can make it work. We need to think big.”

Chris Smith, chairman of the Environment Agency, which is working with Moors for the Future, said: “Our upland peatlands are the UK’s biggest natural carbon store. Incredibly, this wild habitat holds around 3 billion tonnes of CO2, equivalent to 20 years of the country’s current carbon emissions.

“It’s imperative we ensure the peatlands are conserved and protected so this legacy of industral CO2 emissions stays locked up rather than escaping into the air and adding to our greenhouse gas emissions at a time when we urgently need to reduce them.”

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