Unsung Peak District hero Geoff features in new book

While many of Britain’s nature reserves were closed through lockdown, conservation work continued on private land across Britain
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Many of the men and women working hard to make our much-loved moorland thrive are often overlooked.

One of these unsung heroes is Geoff Eyre, whose work in the Peak District has restored 40 square miles of moorland.

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Geoff is one of nine previously untold stories celebrated in a new book, Moorland Conservationists: The Untold Story from leading conservation charity, the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT).

Peak District conservationist Geoff EyrePeak District conservationist Geoff Eyre
Peak District conservationist Geoff Eyre

Geoff likens his moorland restoration work to gardening on a grand scale, but that does it a great disservice.

Over the past 30 years he has pioneered methods of collecting the seeds of upland native plants and sowing them, single-handedly restoring an area the size of 14,500 football pitches.

And wildlife is thriving as a result.

On one piece of restored moorland, bird counts have gone from six to 1,000 in just 11 years and boasts the area’s highest density of red-listed lapwing, plus 69 pairs of curlew and several birds of prey.

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In his foreword to the book, former environment minister Richard Benyon said: “The actions of moorland managers are the last bulwark in what is a crisis of species decline across Britain.”

A limited number of copies of the book are available online here.

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