The Trust’s Nature Recovery Committee (NRC), a sub-committee of the Board, is the forum where Trustees, staff and expert external advisors can come together to discuss and guide the Trust’s work in creating a thriving natural environment in and for Yorkshire.
On the 3rd June 2026, the NRC held its annual site visit, which this year explored the peatlands of Hatfield National Nature Reserve (NNR). This area has been identified as one of the Trusts Nature Recovery Areas (NRAs). A working group of staff from across the Trust, has been exploring the best locations for NRAs to enable habitats to be restored, species to recover and natural processes to function across whole landscapes and seascapes. The Humberhead Levels is considered a key area given its landscape scale opportunities.
The site visit enabled the NRC to hear from our Projects Officer, Sarah Bastin, and Natural England’s Julian Small about some of the work undertaken to restore the lowland peat habitat; hear more about Natural England’s own ambitions for the NNR and view firsthand the remaining area of lowland raised bog from several vantage points.
Sarah expertly described the peatland restoration that has been made possible through the Nature for Climate Peatland Restoration grant and the myriad of restoration measures that have been implemented over the last four years.
Sarah reflected, “It was a fantastic opportunity to share what we’ve done on site and lessons learnt from it and encouraging to see how important our amazing peatlands and their restoration are to the NRC and to hear about all the work they are involved with in the wider landscape.”
