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Conservation is a word that is used a great deal but which sometimes has different meanings. The dictionary tells us that conservation and preservation mean the same but this is not strictly true. By conservation we mean keeping and protecting a living and changing environment while preservation may mean protecting in an unchanging way such as pressing a flower or keeping specimens in a museum.
National Parks were set up first in America (Yellowstone Park opened in 1872) and much later in Britain (Peak National Park became the first British National Park in 1951) with the specific purpose of protecting areas of natural beauty in the countryside. Facilities for suitable types of recreation (walking, climbing, fishing etc) are an important part of National Parks but the aims of Conservation should always take priority
Conservation in the Peak District National Park involves more than preventing damage and leaving the countryside alone. Management is needed to maintain the variety and interest of the landscape. This means:-
- Looking after the best features of the landscape e.g well-managed moorland and listed buildings
- Improving neglected features e.g rebuilding stone walls and replanting old woodlands.
- Managing developments so that damage is limited e.g new buildings and recreation activities
 Many organisations are involved in conservation in the Peak National Park:-
The Peak District National Park Authority formulates the conservation policy for the Peak National Park.
English Nature (formerly the National Conservancy Council), is responsible for advising Government on nature conservation in England. Its work includes the management of National Nature Reserves; notification of SSSIs (see page 2) and advice about nature conservation.
English Heritage is responsible nationally for archaeology and the built environment.
Organisations such as the National Trust, the RSPB, and the County voluntary Wildlife Trusts.
Statutory bodies such as Forest Enterprise and Water Companies, which own large areas of the Peak Park.
The landscape consists of both the natural landscape and also the landscape directly affected by human activity. Very little of the Peak Park is in fact completely natural as it is human activity - forest clearance by the earliest settlers; centuries of farming; lead mining and other industries as well as the growth of villages, that has moulded the landscape that we see today.
The rock underneath the Peak District National Park affects the landscape and the plants and animals that live there. The Millstone Grit lies under the Dark Peak, the highest part of the Peak Park, with bleak, exposed moorland and cliff-like edges. The softer shale rock lies under the more fertile valleys. Limestone is the rock under the White Peak, a landscape of grassy plateaux, criss-crossed by stone walls, giving way to steep sided dales.
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NEARLY NATURAL LANDSCAPES
 Moorland
The Dark Peak moorland is the nearest thing to wilderness in England. The moors are dominated by cottongrass on the wet peat bogs and heather, bilberry and crowberry on the drier soils. Sphagnum moss was once dominant in the peat bogs and the peat was formed from its undecayed remains. It is now rare, as a result of pollution during the industrial revolution. The heather moorlands provide food and home for large numbers of red grouse. The commonest bird is the meadow pipit. The most south-easterly breeding ground for the golden plover, a bird which has been given protected status by the European Community, is also in this area.
There are substantial areas of the moorland where the peat soil is being eroded. This erosion is the result of several factors:-
- Summer fires - which kill the plants and burn the top layers of peat soil. It can take many years for the vegetation to re-colonise.
- Harsh climate - Much of the moorland is around 500-600 metres above sea level and the temperatures are low (summer average of 11-120C). This results in very slow rates of re-growth of the moorland plants.
- Pollution - Acid Rain has affected the Peak Park’s moorlands for 200 years. Oxides of sulphur and nitrogen are emitted from factories and power stations and also from cars. These dissolve in rainwater or mist and are deposited as dilute acids. They especially affect mosses and lichens and have been responsible for the decrease in sphagnum moss.
- Grazing pressure - over-grazing by sheep can reduce heather and prevent vegetation getting re-established on bare ground.
- Trampling - many thousands of tourists hike over the moors, wearing away the sparse vegetation and exposing the bare peat which is then subject to erosion.
Woodland
 Wooded valleys on shale and gritstone form another area of natural landscape. They consist typically of sessile oak and birch, often with some mountain ash. These ancient woodlands show the type of vegetation which covered most of the gritsone areas in the past, before the woodlands were cleared for farming and a wetter climate encouraged peat to develop. Birds found here include the redstart, pied flycatcher and wood warbler.
Grazing by sheep stops seedling trees growing and action for conservation usually involves fencing areas of woodland to keep sheep out.
Woodland In Padley Gorge
LIMESTONE HEATHS AND DALES
In the White Peak, Limestone Heaths display the mixture of acidic and lime-loving vegetation characteristic of the limestone plateau before parliamentary enclosure in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The Dales are steep valleys and provide one of the most beautiful landscapes in the Peak Park. The grasslands and ancient woodlands found in the dales are of outstanding ecological interest. These woodlands are of ash and wych elm with a shrub layer of hazel, dogwood and bird cherry. The grasslands have a wide variety of plant species including scabious, harebell, milkwort and several species of orchids. Many insects, butterflies and other small creatures make their homes in these dales while several species of bat live in the caves formed in the limestone.
This type of grassland has been created by centuries of grazing sheep and a problem has come from the reduction in grazing over the last 100 years. This has allowed hazel and hawthorn scrub and coarse grasses to grow up and shade out small flowering plants and to mask the attractive landscape. Conservation of these dales requires the grazing of sheep to be maintained and encouraged.
LANDSCAPE MOST AFFECTED BY HUMAN ACTIVITY
The land most affected by human activity is the enclosed farmland (50% of the Peak Park) The few remaining unimproved grasslands on the farms support a wide range of wild flowers such as meadow saxifrage and cowslip. Former leadworkings support leadwort (spring sandwort), a lead tolerant plant, and many others, such as yellow mountain pansy. The drystone walls are a striking landscape feature and the small fields and traditional stone buildings add much to the characteristic landscape of the Peak Park.
The conservation of this landscape can be threatened by the trend towards larger fields, post and wire fences and improved grassland (where fertilisers and herbicides are used).
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POINTS TO CONSIDER |
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