Bales of brash

Today we went on another good walk - that's 3 in a week! This time it was up Langbar moor, around March Ghyll Reservoir and back over the top of Beamsley beacon.
From across the moor I spied these white bags and from a distance they did initially look like sheep until I realised they weren't moving. We passed them later and the bags were neatly packed with bales of heather 'brash'. The ground around had been mown clear of heather in places also. Further down the path we passed a baling machine which was obviously being used to bale the heather.
Upon getting home I did some research and I concluded that the heather was most probably going to be used for the regeneration of peat moorland. I understand it provides a seed source from which eroded peat landscape can be regenerated. These bags were probably awaiting pickup by helicopter for transportation elsewhere. There seem to have been various conservation projects like this, see here or here.

So that that was the mystery of the inanimate sheep solved, and another educational blip!  

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