Landowners/ land managers
Activities
Report now produced and available to view at https://www.forestofbowland.com/Plans-Strategies-Reports
Additional re-profiling and re-wetting followed by reseeding on area already fenced out on Hawthornthwaite, Abbeystead.
In autumn 2014 an £8M EU LIFE+ bid covering the whole of the Pennine Chain (and including £1.4M of work in Bowland over 8 sites) was submitted. In the summer of 2015 we had word that whilst the bid passed the threshold, there was insufficient budget available to fund the work. With very positive and detailed feedback, the decision was made to resubmit in Autumn 2015. The revised bid has £1.14M on three sites in Bowland, with the decision due in summer 2016.
Update - the second submission was rejected and the decision was taken to try a third time. This submission was made in September 2016. The decision is due in mid-2017.
Update - the third submission was successful, with Bowland including three sites, Holmes House (Bleasdale), Hareden (UU) & Langden (UU) included for works from 2018 onwards. Project Officer in place, Chris Miller, as of late 2017, starting off with detailed ground truthing and drone survey.
Plans have been produced for Greater Butterfly orchid, Globeflower and Juniper.
All three plans are underway.
Peatland restoration work on the Bowland Fell SSSI units (those which are unfavourable recovering) is ongoing as budgets allow. In the autumn of 2015, EA budget was identified and allocated to Brown Syke, Abbeystead. By the end of March 2016, the works to reseed the already re-profiled bare peat and hags will have been completed. Tender specs produced by National Landscape staff, project managed by LCC staff, reporting to EA by National Landscape staff.
The new Countryside Stewardship scheme (NELMS as was) encourages catchment based action through the funding of Facilitation Groups through a competitive process. In 2015, RRT were successful in getting funding for a group on the Loud catchment and the National Landscape team have contributed in the targeting of this group - in particular - areas within the catchment where boundary restoration is a priority; farms with potential for meadow restoration.
In Jan 2015, it was decided that a woodland survey was the top habitat survey priority. As the staff resource was limited, the number of BHS sites alone within the National Landscape is 197 and because the Pendle LPS area has recently been deliniated, it was decided that it made good sense to start off with the survey of the BHS woodlands within the Pendle area. This was done using the LWT rapid assessment method. 40% of sites were surveyed in the spring of 2015, the rest will be done in the spring of 2016. The rapid assessment method was very effective in showing management needed, and the results from the sample were used in drawing up the Pendle LPS application. trainees from the Biodiverse Society project helped in the 2015 survey, as did colleagues from the National Landscape & LCC team.
An assessment of the peatland restoration work still to be completed within the National Landscape area was undertaken as the Priority peat 2013 project, which was produced as a report in April 2014. The matrix approach allows priorities for action to be determined based on a large number of datasets and consultation with key partners. It has since been used to prioritise sites to be put into EU LIFE+ bids (2014 & 2015) and to direct EA funds to 'shovel ready' projects (eg work on Brown Syke, Abbeystead).
The N4N project aimed to help create a living network of nectar hubs for bees and other pollinating invertebrates across the National Landscape by creating small patches of species rich grassland and corn field annual patches, mainly on non-farmed land such as in school grounds, businesses and community spaces.
The project created 25 nectar patches, 7 mini-meadows and worked at a field scale to restore 35 ha of meadows as well. The project worked with 10 community groups, 6 private landowners, 10 businesses and 5 schools. We organised 12 public events, attracting 170 people.
The Bowland Hay Time project has restored 35 ha of meadows during 2014 & 2015. This has been possible through partnership working with the N4N project, LEF, the Coronation Meadows project, NE and YDMT. We used green hay and brush harvested seed, as well as plug planting on several sites.
In 2016 we restored 20 ha with a further 11ha in 2017, all using green hay, brush harvested and vacuumed seed. Sites included SSSIs (New Ings and Tarnbrook) in need of seed addition.
In 2018 a further 3 meadows of feild scale restoration were completed through Bowland Haytime
A survey of the BHS (and other) meadows and pastures was begun in 2012 and continued in 2013. There are some sites still to complete, as this survey prioritised meadows over pastures and did not look at wet grasslands. Need an assessment of which sites are still to be surveyed.