Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 13/7/11 16:40 Page 1

NATURE’S TAPESTRY The story of England’s grasslands and why not all grass is green. Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 13/7/11 16:40 Page 2

2 Nature’s Tapestry - The Grasslands Trust

The Grasslands Trust Contents The Grasslands Trust is a UK Registered Charity (No. 1097893) and Company 3 Executive Summary Limited by Guarantee founded in 2002 Executive Summary and recommendations in order to reverse the decline of our wildlife-rich grasslands. 4 Introduction Acknowledgements Thanks to everyone who contributed to 5 Chapter One the production of this report, especially What are wildlife-rich grasslands the authors of the case studies, both in the report and on the accompanying webpage. 10 Chapter Two Thanks to Lucy Cooper, Deborah Alexander and everyone else at The Grasslands Trust The values of wildlife-rich grasslands for helping produce the report. Thanks also to Clare Pinches and Andrew 13 Chapter Three Thompson at Natural England who helped What is happening to England’s grasslands to develop the report. The production of this report was financially supported by The European Commission DG 21 Chapter Four Environment; and Natural England. What factors are driving change on grasslands Author: Miles King Editor: Andrew Branson, 26 Conclusions British Wildlife Publishing Design: Greenhouse Graphics 27 The Grasslands Trust

The RSPB believes that appropriate management of England’s semi-natural grasslands is a priority, given their importance for biodiversity and key ecosystem services. Nature’s Tapestry effectively highlights the value of these grasslands and the threats they face - it is an important report on a vital subject. Gareth Morgan, Head of Countryside and Species Conservation (Policy).

The production of this report is supported by the European Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralism through its DG Environment part-funded 2011 work programme. The views in this report do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission.

The following organisations endorse this report: Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 13/7/11 16:40 Page 3

Nature’s Tapestry - Executive Summary 3

Executive Summary Semi-natural grasslands have evolved “efficient” food production, not on the through human activity over the past 6,000 multitude of other public goods semi-natural years: there are practically no natural grasslands provide. grasslands in England. There are now very Private landowners, conservation charities, few semi-natural grasslands left in England: local authorities and government agencies all modern agriculture has led to their work together to protect and manage semi- destruction over the past 60 years. There is natural grasslands. There are some excellent an important resource of grasslands that local and national grasslands projects making have been partly modified by modern good progress, but semi-natural grasslands agriculture, but which still retain significant are still very vulnerable to the twin pressures value. This resource is undervalued by of intensification and neglect. Grasslands in society and provides important public SSSIs are better protected than they were, goods. but those outside SSSIs are very vulnerable. As well as being rich in wildlife, landscape Funding from agri-environment schemes character and archaeology, semi-natural helps but entry level funding is poorly grasslands provide a wide range of targeted. Most CAP funding is through the environmental goods and services: carbon Single Payment Scheme. The rules governing storage, flood prevention, water purification, this scheme are unhelpful for semi-natural crop pollination, tourism, health, well-being grasslands and fail to recognise their and inspiration. Intensively managed environmental and heritage value, and agricultural grasslands provide one service: economic handicaps. The regulations that cheap food. There is a danger that taking a are supposed to protect semi-natural purely economic approach to valuing semi- grasslands from intensive agriculture are natural grasslands runs the risk of the largely ineffective. intangible values being ignored. Development pressures still threaten Semi-natural grasslands depend on grasslands, and changes to planning rules sympathetic management, such as low- could increase these threats. Grasslands are intensity grazing by livestock or horses, or valuable for local communities and The mowing for hay. The costs of making a Grasslands Trust is developing Community change from intensive to sympathetic Grasslands to encourage this. Dog-walkers management can be off-putting for and horse-keepers, in particular, use semi- landowners, because the current agricultural natural grasslands. Their impact can cause subsidy system places a value only on damage, but need not do so.

Key recommendations ■ Implement in full the recommendations ■ Improve targeting of agri-environment in ‘Making Space for Nature’. scheme funding to ensure it is used to ■ Reform the Common Agricultural protect and ensure management of Policy in the long term so that CAP semi-natural grasslands. payments are made for the provision ■ Notify as SSSIs all surviving significant of environmental public goods and semi-natural grasslands. the protection of the cultural ■ Revise the EIA (Agriculture) Regulations landscape, and targeted to support so they become an effective tool for low-intensity agriculture. protecting semi-natural grasslands. ■ Short-term reform of the CAP should ■ Prepare a comprehensive Grasslands “Since the arrival focus on improving the rules governing Inventory, based on Natural England’s Single Payment, reform the permanent Lowland Grassland Inventory. pasture rules, amend the eligibility ■ Ensure the new planning system of neolithic criteria, improve the GAEC rules to protects existing semi-natural grasslands prevent damage to semi-natural farming culture, from development, and supports grasslands, and ensure they are managed restoration and creation of new sympathetically. A Premium should be 6,000 years ago, grasslands in new developments. introduced for farmers who commit to grasslands have maintain their semi-natural grasslands. dominated the English landscape” Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 13/7/11 16:41 Page 4

4 Nature’s Tapestry - Introduction

Introduction

Grasslands are the foundation of the English landscape. They may not hold the mystery of our ancient woodlands but England is still at heart a ‘green and pleasant’ land. It is England’s hedged tapestry of meadows and pastures that have so often drawn people back - the ‘meadowsweet, and haycock dry’ of Edward Thomas, and Browning’s fields of ‘buttercups - Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower’. The story of England’s grasslands is one that stretches back across millennia, and has for much of that time been an evolving partnership between our pastoral ancestors and the ebb and flow of the wildlife that has lived among them. Change has always been a part of the grassland cycle, but since the Second World War the pace of change has been such that many of the traditional patterns of land-use have almost disappeared, along with the wildlife communities that developed alongside them. For 6,000 years the English landscape was a palimpsest – layers of previous land-use, wildlife and human activity had developed one upon another, with traces of the previous epoch still remaining and influencing the next. In the past 70 years, the palimpsest has been almost entirely erased, leaving only those features that have survived below the deepest plough furrow, on the steepest slope, on the very poorest soils, or the wettest marsh. Those semi-natural grasslands that survive not only hold some of our richest wildlife, but are an irreplaceable link to understanding our long relationship with the land.

Chalk downland like this has been a part of our English landscape for centuries. Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 13/7/11 16:41 Page 5

Nature’s Tapestry - Chapter One 5

Less than 100,000ha or just 3% of England’s lowland grasslands are still rich in wildlife, archaeology and history.

Chapter One What are wildlife-rich grasslands?

Grass is everywhere from your lawn to the time, grassland wildlife would have survived practices led to a peak in arable production local park, to vast swathes of the open in naturally open spaces within the of 6 million hectares in the first half of the countryside. Just over 5 million hectares of Wildwood, possibly kept open by natural 19th century. By the beginning of the 20th England’s farmland is covered in grasslands events, such as fires and floods, as well as by century, arable production had declined and of one kind or another. That’s over half the herds of native herbivores (e.g. auroch, elk, the area of permanent grassland increased agricultural land in England. This figure does bison, moose, wild boar, beaver, red deer), again to 6 million hectares. During the early not even include all the lawns, parks, golf most of which are now long extinct. Since part of the 20th century, grassland courses and all the other places where grass the arrival of Neolithic farming culture, management started to change, with the grows. Even arable land is dominated by the 6,000 years ago, grasslands have dominated development of new varieties of grass and special group of grasses that humans have the English landscape. the introduction of artificial fertilisers such as domesticated – wheat, barley, rye and basic slag and super-phosphate. The drive for The arrival of farming brought livestock and maize. But these rely on annual cultivation domestic food production during the Second arable cultivation to Britain. This led to much and are not dealt with in this report. World War once again swung the pendulum of the forested land being cleared (through away from grassland and back to arable. This All grasses, and all grasslands, are not the grazing, burning and cutting) to make way time, however, the change would transform same though. The bright green fields that for farmland. Mixed (arable and livestock) the English landscape entirely. clothe the modern English countryside are farming dominated and the two land uses a far cry from the wildlife-filled meadows, depended on each other – manure from the commons and downlands of the past. farm animals fertilised the arable fields; after The Green Revolution Almost all of England’s grasslands have been a few years of cropping, arable fields were Many grasslands were ploughed in the heavily modified by agriculture. Two-thirds left fallow and became grazed pastures in ‘Great Harvests’ of 1941 and 1942, but the are entirely improved, dominated by one or order to replenish the soil, before being two types of grass grown with artificial seismic shift in agriculture occurred in the ploughed again. Commons, village greens, fertilisers and herbicides. About a third are post-war years, with the introduction of new heathlands and wood pastures provided semi-improved1, and while dominated by chemicals, new machinery and new crop permanent grazing for sheep and cattle grasses, these still have a few common wild varieties. Government grants paid farmers to reared for meat, and oxen used as working flowers such as buttercups and daisies. plough meadows, commons and downland. animals. Meadows provided hay to keep the By 1980, 97% of all traditionally managed Less than 100,000ha or just 3% of England’s livestock alive over winter. The cycle of lowland meadows had gone, and losses to lowland grasslands are still rich in wildlife, arable and fallow, combined with other semi-natural grasslands were almost archaeology and history. permanent grasslands, provided as great. The landscapes of the pre-war years opportunities for wildlife to re-colonise areas had largely been swept away in the drive to Origins as soon as conditions became suitable. produce more and cheaper food. The uplands did not escape this intensification The origins of England’s semi-natural In mediaeval times, the area of arable land as subsidies encouraged damaging grasslands2 go back thousands of years. increased in order to provide food for a overgrazing, reducing their value for wildlife Almost all of the plants and animals that burgeoning population – in 1270, at the and landscape character, as well reducing inhabit these grasslands colonised Britain height of the open-field farming system, it is the upland soil’s ability to store carbon, store after the last ice age, about 10,000 years estimated that 5 million hectares of England water to prevent flooding, and to purify it for ago. As the glaciers retreated, grasslands was in cultivation, with over a third as fallow drinking purposes. replaced them. These were, in turn, replaced land. After the Black Death, a much smaller by a primeval wood – the ‘Wildwood’, which population needed less arable land, and by In the last 20 years there has been a gradual flourished for 4,000 years, occupied by 1500 only 3.2 million hectares were arable. increase in funds, through the European Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. During that Population growth and improving farming Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), to

1. Semi-improved in this sense means a grassland where the wildlife value has been reduced as a result of agricultural activities such as the addition of artificial fertilisers, use of herbicides, long-term overgrazing or drainage. Semi-improved grasslands still retain some of the wildlife that occurs in their unimproved semi-natural counterparts. 2. For a definition see page 6. Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 13/7/11 16:41 Page 6

6 Nature’s Tapestry - Chapter One

support less-intensive farming systems, in enclosed landscapes where hedged mostly through agri-environment schemes fields of meadow or pasture dominated such as Countryside Stewardship, the landscape. Environmentally Sensitive Areas, and now There are five3 main types of semi-natural Environmental Stewardship. However, most grassland in England (recognised as priorities CAP payments still do not support extensive within the England Biodiversity Strategy), farming systems, and cross-compliance measures designed to ensure farmland is and these sit within a larger matrix of semi- managed in an environmentally beneficial improved grassland: way will not reverse the losses of semi- natural grasslands that occurred during the Figure 1 total grassland area as previous decades. proportion of agricultural area of England

all figures in hectares Natural grasslands

There are practically no ‘natural’ grasslands 4,368,000 total grassland left in England, as indeed is the case 8,874,000 total agricultural area throughout western Europe. The nearest thing to natural grassland in England occurs on the coast – in dunes, on cliffs or at the back of beaches – or sometimes on the edges of rivers. Relatively natural habitats Figure 2 proportions of improved, semi have been modified by human activity in the improved and unimproved grasslands past, even though they may appear entirely 90,000 natural now. The vast majority of grasslands rich in wildlife are termed ‘semi-natural’. unimproved grassland 1,450,000 semi improved grassland What are semi-natural 2,828,000 grasslands? improved grassland The communities of native wild plants and animals found in ‘semi-natural’ grasslands

over thousands of years have been altered Figure 3 proportions of different by the activities of people, mostly through types of unimproved grasslands farming. These activities include grazing with 1,000 domestic livestock, mowing for hay, shallow limestone grassland drainage of wet ground, removal or control 8,000 of shrubs and trees, burning, and the marshy grassland 20,000 39,000 application of farmyard manure and lime. acid grassland The majority of semi-natural grasslands occurred in the unenclosed landscapes of lowland meadows/pasture 22,000 downs, moors and wolds, where stockmen upland hay meadows controlled where their animals grazed, and Ragged robin thrives in marshy grasslands.

3. Coastal floodplain/grazing marsh is a mosaic of plant communities including wet grassland, but is not covered in this report. Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 13/7/11 16:41 Page 7

Nature’s Tapestry - Chapter One 7

Limestone grasslands Lowland meadows and Grasslands rich in wildlife and archaeology pastures can be found on limestone, from the chalk These are the meadows and pastures that downlands of southern England to the hard once were found in every parish of lowland limestones of the Cotswolds, the Peak England. They include the more unusual District and the Craven District of Yorkshire, floodplain meadows with snake’s-head as well as on more unusual types such as the fritillaries, and flood pastures with marsh Magnesian Limestone grasslands of Durham. marigold. Most are the more typical flower- Limestone grasslands are especially rich in filled dry meadows that were traditionally butterflies and other invertebrates, as well as cut for hay. Formerly found across lowland plants such as the pasqueflower and native England, 97% have been agriculturallly orchids. There are 39,000ha left in England, improved or lost since 1940 and there are with the majority (55%) of England’s less than 8,000 ha left, mostly surviving as limestone grasslands occurring on Salisbury small individual fields on farms. Only half of Plain and Porton Down, in Wiltshire. the surviving resource lies within the protection of Sites of Special Scientific Marshy grasslands Interest (SSSI). There are still concentrations of lowland meadows in parts of Hereford The rainy west of England produces soils and Worcestershire, Somerset and Dorset, with more peat content, which give rise East Anglia and the Weald. to special wet grasslands characterised by rushes and purple moor-grass. A stronghold for these grasslands occurs in Devon and Upland hay meadows Cornwall on the Culm measures, hence their Confined to valleys in the northern local name of Culm grasslands. This type of uplands, these hay meadows have almost grassland is rare and declining in Europe and disappeared, replaced by intensively supports threatened species such as the managed grasslands that are fertilised and marsh fritillary butterfly. There are less than cut for silage. Upland hay meadows are 22,000ha left in England. particularly beautiful, including such attractive flowers as globeflower, wood Acid grasslands crane’s-bill and melancholy thistle. They depend for their survival on farmers who Acid grasslands are less well known than are willing to continue to make hay late in lowland meadows or limestone grasslands. the season, and to graze the meadows after They tend to occur as mosaics with lowland the hay has been cut. These meadows, often heathland in places such as the New Forest. tiny, are now found mainly in the North Acid grasslands are especially important for Pennines, Yorkshire Dales and Cumbria. bees and other invertebrates of open Less than 1,000ha of these hay meadows ground, as well as lichens and mosses. survive today. There are just 20,000ha left in England, mostly mixed in with the 35,000ha of lowland heathland. Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 14/7/11 10:32 Page 8

8 Nature’s Tapestry - Chapter One

CASE STUDY

Waxcap Grasslands

The importance of semi-natural grasslands for fungi Semi-natural grassland is widely known to be an important habitat for many of the species of fungi that are considered threatened with extinction across Europe. Indeed, England is thought to be a stronghold for many of these grassland species, including many on the European Red Data lists. The presence of certain species of waxcap fungi and other larger fungi constitutes a quality ‘waxcap-grassland’ site. Indicator species of these grasslands include members of the Clavariaceae (club and coral fungi), Hygrophoraceae (waxcaps), Entolomataceae (pink-gilled agarics) and Semi-improved grasslands Geoglossaceae (earthtongues). Just as semi-natural grasslands have The specific triggers that cause these fungi evolved through centuries of farmers’ to fruit are not well understood and can activities on communities of wild plants vary, as do the ecological needs of individual and animals, the modern equivalent of species. One theory is that the mycelium of this process has produced semi-improved grassland fungi may be growing at greater grasslands. These started as semi-natural depths than usual for saprotrophs, feeding grasslands and have been subject to more on heavily decomposed plant litter. Waxcaps modern agricultural practices, such as the and their associates occur in a range of application of artificial fertilisers and grassland types, some of the most important herbicides, the seeding of agricultural sites in the UK being in upland areas of semi- varieties of grasses and clovers, combined natural grassland, but there appears to be no with intensive overgrazing, deep drainage, correlation between the wealth of grassland or a shift from hay to silage production. fungi and the usual indicator vascular plants. According to the Government’s Whilst totally unimproved grassland may Countryside Survey, there are 1.45 million hold the richest wealth of ‘grassland fungi’, hectares of semi-improved grasslands in semi-improved grassland, including grazed England, but these range from fields that or mown short swards, such as that found at almost entirely devoid of wildlife to those The Bury Farm in Herefordshire, needs which are very rich in wildlife. greater conservation awareness to help prevent the land from reverting to long-grass Improved grasslands meadowland, to the detriment of waxcap- grassland fungi. Continued surveying of Most grassland in England has been suitable sites across the country is needed to ‘improved’ agriculturally. That means gain further knowledge of the habitat that the native grasses and herbs have requirements of our grassland fungi in order been replaced by agricultural varieties of to ensure that England’s current position as a grass and clover. They are given regular stronghold for these fungi does not weaken, applications of artificial fertiliser, or other as it has done across mainland Europe. fertilisers such as slurry, to make them more productive. They are regularly Sheila Spence, Mycologist re-seeded to maintain that productivity, Semi-natural and herbicides are used to keep grasslands are still unwanted plants to a minimum. In wet areas, drainage has allowed grasses to vulnerable to the grow where rushes or sedges may have previously thrived. Improved grasslands twin pressures of tend to support two or three times the livestock as an equivalent area of semi- intensification and natural pasture, but this productivity costs more in terms of agricultural inputs neglect. such as fertilisers, herbicides and fuel, and in maintaining infrastructure, such Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 14/7/11 10:32 Page 9

Nature’s Tapestry - Chapter One 9

as drainage. Productive grasslands can have value for wildlife, for example, some species of geese prefer to graze on productive improved grasslands. Improved grasslands include temporary grasslands – in mixed farming systems, temporary grasslands are included in the crop rotation, are seeded, then ploughed up after one or two years. This farming system is becoming more and more rare, as English farms focus either on arable or livestock/dairy production.

Management is key for semi-natural grasslands Semi-natural grasslands depend on management by farmers for their existence. Historically, this management provided food to keep people alive, so it was an essential part of the economy. Pastures were grazed to produce livestock, meadows were cut for hay to feed livestock through the winter. As well as grazing, grassland and heathland commons had other useful products – gorse and peat were cut for fuel, bracken for bedding. Limestone grasslands also provided fuel from the cutting of shrubs such as hawthorn, while juniper provided berries for food and drinks. As semi-natural grasslands have been replaced with modern, intensively managed grasslands in the past 70 years, the agricultural value of semi-natural grasslands has gradually dwindled away. Who would choose to cut bracken for animal bedding, when straw from arable farms is readily available? Gorse is no longer cut for fuel when more efficient fuel sources are instantly on-tap. This has led to the neglect and abandonment of semi-natural grasslands, especially those that do not fit easily into modern agriculture or other pursuits such as horse-keeping. Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 13/7/11 16:42 Page 10

10 Nature’s Tapestry - Chapter Two

CASE STUDY

Bumblebees and grasslands Bumblebees are important pollinators for the majority of the wild flowers that species-rich grasslands support, whilst bumblebees themselves need the pollen and nectar provided by grassland flowers throughout their nesting season (April- September). They also pollinate many agricultural crops. Unfortunately, Chapter Two bumblebees are thought to have undergone massive declines, with the extinction and near-extinction of several The values of wildlife-rich grasslands species, mainly as a result of the widespread loss of flower-rich grasslands during the last 75 years. The continued decline of bumblebees will therefore Semi-natural grasslands are the richest have huge impacts for both agriculture habitats for wildlife in England, supporting and conservation. more priority species than any other habitat; Bumblebees rely upon flower-rich a fifth of all priority species are associated habitats to gather nectar, and they use with grassland habitats. tussocky and tall grass areas for nesting. They are valued by people and are worth Landscape-scale grassland restoration conserving. This is recognised in the 1992 and creation is required to safeguard and Rio Convention on Biological Diversity, expand existing bumblebee populations. which places a duty on countries that have This is particularly important for rare signed up to the Convention to conserve bumblebee species. The shrill carder bee their species and habitats. There is also a Bombus sylvarum is one of the two rarest more general acceptance in society that bumblebees in the UK and is now we have a moral obligation to ensure that restricted to just six isolated populations, species (other than lethal pathogens) and of which three are in England (Somerset their habitats do not disappear as a result of Levels, north Kent/south Essex and human activities. We value the presence of Salisbury Plain) and three in south Wales. nature, including semi-natural grasslands, The Bumblebee Habitat Project is whether it is on our doorstep or in some www.phocus-on.co.uk working in each of these areas to provide remote location we may never visit. We are habitat in order to prevent the national happy knowing that penguins exist in the Ecosystem services – perils extinction of the shrill carder bee. Antarctic, even though most of us will never and opportunities Grassland management, restoration and see one – most people feel diminished when creation are key to this work. By working nature is damaged by human activity. England’s semi-natural grasslands provide with farmers and other landowners in These arguments have been put forward for us with a wide range of different goods and priority areas throughout England and over a century but they have not prevailed. services. These are described in the recently Wales, new patches of flower-rich habitat Quite the contrary – the loss of species and published National Ecosystem Assessment. are being created in arable margins, habitats has accelerated over the past 50 Their soils absorb and store carbon, helping grass strips, hedgerows, ditches and years to the point now where many consider to mitigate climate change. Semi-natural orchards, and flower-rich grasslands are the sixth global mass extinction is already grasslands help purify drinking water, unlike being created and restored. The project happening, thanks to our actions. A new intensive grasslands and arable land where is supported in England by ELS and HLS approach has been developed which aims artificial fertilisers are used, which pollute options under the Environmental to highlight the economic value of nature, drinking water. Semi-natural grasslands Stewardship scheme. provide us with high quality meat and dairy valuing it in terms of the ‘ecosystem goods Pippa Rayner, products, and there is some evidence that and services’ it provides to humanity. Bumblebee Conservation Trust food produced from semi-natural grasslands is healthier compared with food produced from intensive grasslands. Semi-natural grasslands provide homes for pollinating insects, which are estimated to be worth £440 million a year to England’s agricultural industries. They also provide homes for other insects that are predators of important crop pests. Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 13/7/11 17:16 Page 11

Nature’s Tapestry - Chapter Two 11

Semi-natural grasslands provide homes for pollinating insects, which are estimated to be worth £440 million a year to England’s agricultural industries.

Semi-natural grasslands, along with other sown around the boundaries of arable and He also knew his meadow flowers: habitats, provide places where people improved grassland fields, to provide nectar ‘When Daisies pied and violets blue can exercise or relax – there are proven for pollinators. There need be no place for And lady’s-smocks all silver-white physical and mental health benefits from small wildflower meadows filled with orchids And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue spending time in places rich in wildlife. or butterflies. Grassland landscapes provide the Do paint the meadows with delight…‘ Is it even morally justifiable to place a backdrop for some of our most popular Love Labour’s Lost Act V Scene ii tourist destinations, such as the South monetary value on the inspiration that a Thomas Hardy celebrated the heaths and Downs, Yorkshire Dales or the Lake meadow might provide to an artist or a grasslands of Dorset in his novels: District. Tourism is a large part of the poet, or just the simple pleasure of walking economy in much of rural England, and through a flower-filled meadow? ‘Their gauzy skirts had brushed up from the contributes more to the national grass innumerable flies and butterflies which, economy than agriculture. Grasslands are unable to escape, remained caged in the transparent tissue as in an aviary.’ There is an enthusiasm at the moment inspirational to use the Ecosystem Services argument Tess of the d’Urbervilles, 1891 Across the centuries, semi-natural grasslands to place a monetary value on nature, to have inspired artists and writers, from John justify its existence in economic terms. Constable to David Hockney and William Grasslands are central to While it is possible to place a monetary value on some ecosystem services, it is Shakespeare to Ted Hughes. In particular, our history and culture far more difficult to monetise others. For the communal endeavour of hay-making Grasslands full of wildlife inspire painters and example 1.45 million hectares of semi- on the village meadow has provided a rich writers, but they also provide everyone with improved grassland in England is source for many writers, from Jane Austen spiritual sustenance and provide spaces for estimated to store around 300 million to D H Lawrence. William Shakespeare contemplation and meditation. Neolithic tonnes of carbon; if carbon is valued at described meadows in several of his plays cultures understood the importance of £16/tonne, the carbon in those grassland and the great rural poet, John Clare, wrote placing ritual structures, such as stone circles soils would be worth nearly £5 billion. with passion and knowledge about both and henges, in open grass landscapes. From This is a notional value, in any case, as at the joy and loss of his Northamptonshire ancient times until relatively recently, present there is no mechanism to pay a meadows and commons. Shakespeare Maypoles were erected on village greens in landowner to store or sequester carbon understood not only the need for grassland England to celebrate the ancient fertility rites in grasslands; meanwhile, farm subsidies management but also the ‘services’ they of spring. Elsewhere, the Beltane fires of May still provide an incentive to cultivate provide us: marked the beginning of the pastoral grasslands, releasing that carbon store. ‘The even mead that erst brought sweetly forth summer season when livestock were driven to the summer pastures and mountain The ecosystem services approach is also the freckled cowslip, burnet and green clover, vulnerable to being subverted into a grazing lands. Our history is littered with wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank, series of engineered technical fixes. Grass epoch-changing events that occurred on the margins around arable fields can capture conceives by idleness, and nothing teems many battlefields of England – all grasslands. nitrogen before it enters watercourses; but hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, In the busy modern world, grasslands rich in and wildflower seed mixes (or just burs losing both beauty and utility’ wildlife can provide a sanctuary for a agricultural varieties of clover) can be Henry V Act V Scene ii moment’s contemplation of nature. Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 13/7/11 16:42 Page 12

12 Nature’s Tapestry - Chapter Two

CASE STUDY County Council on behalf of English Heritage. This project reviewed surviving field systems around medieval settlements Archaeological sites across all or parts of nine counties: The intensity and type of land management Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, are major factors affecting the survival of Cambridgeshire, Gloucestershire, archaeological sites. Those within grassland Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, have survived to the present day in far better Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire and condition than their counterparts in Warwickshire, covering a total area of cultivated land. Indeed, nationally 32% of 14,000 square kilometres. Comparison with the 19,711 Scheduled Monuments are in data from the 1950s showed that of 2,000 grassland. Areas of unimproved permanent studied townships, only 104 had more than grazing land contain some of the nation’s 18% of their ridge and furrow surviving in best-preserved archaeological sites, which 1998. More startling still, of 43 outstanding are often visible as earthworks. Maintaining sites identified in 1998, another survey in these sites in grassland is the most benign 1999 showed that a further 800ha of ridge www.phocus-on.co.uk form of management, ensuring that they are and furrow had been lost in the intervening not physically degraded by either cultivation year. These ridge and furrow townships M4 motorway and wholesale intensification or tree and scrub growth, but even more represent the last definitive representations as a result of entry into the Common importantly, that they remain visible as of an agricultural system that reached a Agricultural Policy in the 1970s have largely readable elements of the landscape. unique scale of development in the English destroyed the chalk grasslands and the Midlands. Ridge and furrow is very rare and However, evidence suggests that the cultural heritage they contained, and both fragmented across Europe, and therefore number of archaeological sites surviving now survive only in small fragments. within grassland declined dramatically in the these sites are of international importance second half of the 20th century. These losses as the best examples of a regime that The scenarios above need not be the case. were not solely at the level of small, dominated northern Europe for 1,000 years. As a part of the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site special project, at fragmentary survivals, but in some cases However, these losses have occurred across Normanton Down, a prehistoric cemetery on the scale of entire landscapes. As an all regions, albeit at varying speeds, and are south of Stonehenge, arable crops were example, up until the mid-20th century, the not a purely a Midlands phenomenon. When reverted to grassland in 2003, and today the vestiges of the medieval open-field systems the antiquarian, artist and traveller Sir burial mounds are no longer isolated islands of the Midlands were a distinctive and Richard Colt Hoare rode across the Wiltshire in a sea of crops. In 2004, the RSPB readily discernible part of the region’s Downs at the start of the 19th century, established a nature reserve here to protect character. Although enclosure and a sketching and recording for what would the rare stone-curlews and increase the wholesale switch from arable to livestock become The Ancient History of Wiltshire extent of chalk grassland. The RSPB is rearing from the 15th century onwards (1812 and 1821), he described a chalkland carrying out regular wildlife surveys and 22 largely brought about an end to the open- landscape largely unchanged from Roman species of butterfly were recorded in this field system, the extensive ‘ridge and furrow’ times, with Roman roads, fields and area in 2008. The reversion to grassland has patterns preserved in grassland were a settlements visibly overlying those of the led to exemplary management, and is a testament to the importance and extent prehistoric society that they replaced. good illustration of how managing of communal arable production in earlier Despite the conversion of some grassland to archaeology within grassland can provide periods. Following concern at the scale of arable in the 19th and 20th centuries, this a wide range of benefits. this loss, in 2001 the Turning the Plough was still largely the case up until the 1950s survey was carried out by Northamptonshire and 1960s. However, the construction of the Vince Holyoak, English Heritage Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 13/7/11 16:43 Page 13

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Chapter Three What is happening to England’s grasslands?

The fate of semi-natural grasslands is Protected sites CASE STUDY inextricably linked to the development of Site protection has helped prevent the modern agriculture. As the productivity of EIA (Agriculture) agriculture has increased over the past 70 complete loss of some grassland habitats. years, semi-natural grasslands have become Starting with the National Parks and Access Regulations restricted to ever more marginal land. Flat to the Countryside Act in 1949, continuing The European ‘Environmental Impact fields were the first to be converted to through a succession of Acts of Parliament, Assessment’ Directive from 1985 provides intensive grasslands or arable production; legal protection afforded to Sites of Special a mechanism to protect ‘semi-natural areas prone to flooding or with high water Scientific Interest (SSSIs) has strengthened areas’ from intensive agriculture projects. tables were drained. This left islands of semi- over the years. In the last two decades, the This was brought into English law very natural grassland confined to the steepest protection has extended to providing funds late (in 2001), and the Regulation was slopes, the poorest soils, or the very to enable sympathetic management of these revised in 2006. The regulation applies to wettest land. sites. This culminated, in 2010, in Natural all agricultural land registered for single England’s assessment that over 95% of payment, through the Good Agricultural Increased agricultural specialisation, with England’s grassland SSSIs were ‘in recovering and Environmental Condition (GAEC) broadly livestock-rearing and dairy farming or favourable condition’. However, this rules. However, this Regulation fails to in the wetter west of England and arable jargon hides more than it reveals. SSSIs can protect semi-natural grasslands from monocultures in the east, has meant that the be classed as being in ‘recovering’ condition agricultural intensification. remaining fragments of semi-natural just because they are in an agri-environment grassland have become more difficult to scheme, even if their wildlife is still declining, There are many problems with manage. Arable enterprises have no livestock or even going extinct. the Regulation: to graze grasslands, and even on livestock ■ it does not apply to semi-natural farms small grassland fragments with no Overall, 68% of semi-natural grasslands in grassland areas below 2ha, thereby water supply, fencing, or other ‘problems’ England are thought to occur in SSSIs. This excluding a large proportion of the are abandoned to bracken or scrub. Surviving varies from 45% for marshy grassland, 55% surviving resource; traditionally managed meadows and pastures for lowland meadows, to 77% for limestone ■ often have more to do with the particular grassland. Natural England’s policy is to the definition of semi-natural is far attitudes and interests of individual farmers designate as SSSIs all significant surviving too restrictive – it excludes grasslands that support valuable wildlife species than the mainstream of agricultural advice. semi-natural grassland fragments, but in other than plants; Semi-natural grasslands are still vulnerable to reality very few have been notified in ■ the Regulation invariably acts the twin pressures of intensification of land- recent years. retrospectively, meaning the use and neglect. One of the reasons why it is grasslands have already been lost difficult to know what is happening to our before any action is taken; semi-natural grasslands is that England lacks ■ the balance of evidence weighs a comprehensive grassland inventory. against the Regulator, making it Although much progress has been made easier for a defendant to overturn EIA updating the grassland inventory in the past decisions on appeal. 3 years, Natural England still has an incomplete and outdated Lowland Grassland The Grasslands Trust has brought this Inventory. This is preventing grasslands from matter to the attention of Natural being adequately recognised or protected. England, Defra and the European Commission, and is leading a campaign to strengthen the Regulations. Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 13/7/11 16:43 Page 14

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Unprotected sites While just over two-thirds of England’s semi-natural grasslands occur inside SSSIs, the fate of those outside SSSIs has not been so fortunate. These unprotected grasslands are mostly small and fragmented. They are vulnerable to abandonment, or are affected by surrounding land use (such as pollution or drainage). They are mostly registered as Local Wildlife Sites, which may provide limited protection from development, but little or no protection from agricultural intensification. The one mechanism that could be used to protect against this is the Environmental Impact Assessment (Agriculture) Regulations, but currently this is too weak to be effective. In England, there has been only one comprehensive survey of the status and extent of semi-natural grasslands outside CASE STUDY ■ dingy skipper SSSIs, which happened nearly ten years ago. This found that just a fifth of sites were in ■ grizzled skipper favourable condition, while nearly a quarter Butterflies and grasslands ■ Lulworth skipper of the sites surveyed had either lost some or Butterflies and moths are some of the ■ Duke of Burgundy all of their wildlife value. Other local surveys best indicators of the quality of wildlife- ■ confirm that this situation continues. rich grassland and, more generally, the marsh fritillary health of the environment. Defra uses Many other butterflies and moths Wildlife-rich Proportion in butterflies as indicators of environmental make use of wildlife-rich grassland grassland habitat favourable quality because they respond quickly to during their lifecycles. condition (%) changes in the environment and the ways Purple moor-grass 35 habitats are managed. According to the Chalkhill blue /rush pasture most recent JNCC figures (BIYP 2010), The chalkhill blue is usually a butterfly of Lowland calcareous 28 butterflies restricted to semi-natural limestone (often chalk) grassland, where grassland habitats have declined by 69% since the foodplant for its caterpillars, horseshoe 1976, although declines may have Lowland acid grassland 23 vetch, occurs. It lives on open, sunny, slowed in the last decade. south-facing slopes that are well grazed, Lowland meadow 18 and is widespread across southern

Upland hay meadow 7 160 England England. It suffered a 25% contraction from the 1950s to 1980s, but has Table 1 Proportion of grassland habitats outside 140 SSSIs in favourable condition Generalists (23) responded well to better management of 120 the sites where it occurs, and populations A survey of Dorset Local Wildlife Site 100 have increased three-fold in recent grasslands in 2007 found that over half were decades. Improved management has 80 declining, which effectively means they had occurred as a result of better funding for lost some of their characteristic species since 60 Specialists (23) the management of protected sites (SSSIs) index (1990=100) they were last surveyed during the 1990s. 40 and agri-environment scheme funding to achieve better management outside 20 Grassland Good Declining protected areas. habitat maintained 0 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 Duke of Burgundy Lowland 37% 54% Figure 4 Trends in butterfly populations for Duke of Burgundy butterflies live in areas calcareous (no. of sites) (no. of sites) habitat (grassland) specialists and generalists on where a number of different habitats occur grassland 47% 43% farmland in England, 1990 to 2009 in a complex mosaic. The butterfly’s (by area) (by area) foodplants, primrose and cowslip, can be Lowland 35% 54% A number of butterflies are restricted to found widely, but are used only where meadows (no. of sites) (no. of sites) wildlife-rich grasslands. they occur in long tussocky swards, in lightly grazed or ungrazed scrubby 45% 43% ■ chalkhill blue (by area) (by area) downland or on woodland grassland in ■ adonis blue glades and rides. This butterfly is Table 2 Status of grassland wildlife sites in Dorset ■ small blue disappearing fast, having disappeared from over half its range in England since the ■ silver spotted skipper 1970s, a loss mirrored elsewhere in Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 13/7/11 16:43 Page 15

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One of the reasons why it is difficult to know what is happening to our semi-natural grasslands is that England lacks a comprehensive grassland inventory.

The Government’s National Indicator 197 Oxfordshire, Hampshire, Suffolk and required local authorities to assess whether Norfolk. (see Table 3 below). These Local Wildlife Sites were being managed well. surveys use different methodologies so Overall, just a third of sites were found to be they are not directly comparable. ‘in positive management’, with between a Statistically, these surveys cannot be extrapolated to give national trends. third and a half of grassland sites in that state. However, they do provide evidence that More recent sample surveys of grassland wildlife-rich grasslands outside SSSIs wildlife sites have taken place in continue to decline in some areas.

County Condition

Oxfordshire (30 sites) Lowland meadows 70% favourable Europe. There may now be less than 100 Lowland calcareous grasslands 43% favourable colonies left in England. As well as contracting in range, populations have Norfolk (60 sites) 70% poor or declining 45% (by area) in excellent, good or improving condition fallen by nearly half in the last 25 years, 20% interest lost and now most are very small. The Duke of Burgundy also used to occur in coppiced Suffolk (70 sites) 70% favourable maintained or recovering woodland, but with the decline in 11% unfavourable woodland management these colonies have all but disappeared. Grassland Hampshire Lowland calcareous grasslands in good condition populations have declined partly as a declined from 47% in 1987 to 12% in 2000 49% of lowland meadows had been partially improved result of the loss of downland to intensive or neglected agriculture, and partly through neglect to scrub encroachment. With most Table 3 Grassland surveys populations being small and isolated, local extinctions cannot be reversed by natural re-colonisation. In some cases, populations have been lost through misguided conservation management at sites, where grazing has created short swards for the benefit of limestone plants at the expense of Duke of Burgundy populations. A recent study found that as many sites had lost the butterfly as result of conservation-grazing as from neglect or overgrazing by rabbits. To prevent its extinction, concerted effort is needed to create appropriate conditions at its remaining sites, while landscape-scale action is needed to create new suitable habitat that it can recolonise from its last remaining strongholds. Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 13/7/11 16:43 Page 16

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The resource of semi-improved grassland in England is huge, currently amounting to around a third of all grassland in England, but this is a very poorly understood resource.

Semi-improved grasslands The resource of semi-improved grassland in England is huge, currently amounting to around a third of all grassland in England, but this is a very poorly understood resource. Nevertheless, it is estimated that it provides valuable ecosystem services – nearly 300 million tonnes of carbon is stored in these grasslands’ soils, which are nearly equivalent to the UK’s entire forest carbon store. There is very little information about its value for wildlife, though significant areas are likely to be managed sympathetically in agri- environment schemes. Some of the resource will certainly be restorable to high quality semi-natural grassland, given sufficient funding and advice for landowners. The Government’s Countryside Survey (published in 2010) has attempted to distinguish between typical semi-improved grassland, with relatively low wildlife value, and other areas that still have some wildlife characteristic of semi-natural grasslands. What this survey has found is that the typical grasslands have become slightly more species-rich, while the more valuable grasslands have lost species. This is a trend that has been continuing over the past 20 years. This research indicates that richer stands are losing wildlife value partly because of a lack of management, and partly because soil fertility is increasing as a result of background deposition of pollutants, as well as direct applications of manures and fertilisers, giving a competitive edge to coarser grasses and weeds.

Sympathetically managed grasslands provide health and wellbeing benefits. Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 13/7/11 16:43 Page 17

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Sympathetic management ■ as a by product of these benefits, to know how much semi-natural grassland sympathetically managed grasslands are actually falls within the scheme, or their Grasslands need management, otherwise richer in wildlife, have better landscape locations. Also, ELS does not provide funds they become replaced by other habitats such value, and protect archaeology. for capital infrastructure, such as fencing or as scrub or woodland. Managing semi-natural water supply, which are often critical for While farmers are not being paid to grasslands sympathetically for wildlife (and restoring neglected grasslands. Natural provide ecosystem services, they can ecosystem services) means that the income England have recently introduced ETIP, a be subsidised to reduce the intensity of from intensive management for agriculture is training programme to help farmers find grassland management through agri- lost. In some cases, sympathetic management the best ELS options on their farm: this will environment schemes. can be more expensive in the short term than hopefully lead to better matching of ELS continuing with an intensive approach. Re- options to semi-natural grasslands. introducing sympathetic management can Agri-environment schemes The Higher Level Scheme is a more mean reducing stocking density, investing in Agri-environment schemes, such as targeted scheme, with more generous capital infrastructure, such as fencing, water Countryside Stewardship, were developed payments (over £200 per ha per annum), supply, traditional breeds of livestock or more than 20 years ago to offset some of the and 160,000ha of grasslands have been bespoke agricultural machinery. These can act costs of farming more sympathetically with entered into various HLS grassland options, to discourage those farmers who may want to the land. The original “Classic” schemes are an estimated 60,000ha of which are semi- manage their grasslands sympathetically, let now finishing and being replaced by natural grassland. HLS is undoubtedly alone those who are not interested, or are Environmental Stewardship. Currently helping maintain and restore significant actively antagonistic. around £400 million per annum is spent on amounts of semi-natural grassland in While sympathetic management costs Environmental Stewardship Entry Level (ELS) England and could do considerably more farmers because they produce less stock, and Higher Level Schemes (HLS). However, if extra funds were available. this is still only a little over 10% of the entire their inputs (such as fertiliser, herbicide and The previous agri-environment schemes Common Agricultural Policy subsidy budget fuels) are also reduced. Countryside Stewardship and for England. The benefits to society from Environmentally Sensitive Areas funded These schemes are providing significant farmers to re-create semi-natural grassland sympathetic grassland management funds to help farmers manage semi-natural from arable or improved grassland. Recent are many: grasslands. Around three quarters of agri- monitoring by Natural England indicates ■ sympathetically managed grasslands environment funding is paid through the that while few were successful within the 10 store more carbon (and release fewer Entry Level Scheme (ELS), which pays £30 year life of the schemes, others are starting other greenhouse gases, such as per hectare annually (£50 for organic ELS), to develop wildlife value. As these “classic” nitrous oxide); and includes options to manage grasslands schemes end, only around half of the with little or no fertilisers or herbicides. ■ they reduce nitrogen pollution of water farmers are able to move into HLS. ELS and air, saving lives and money in Given that 350,000ha of grassland have payments are much lower than under the cleaning water; been entered into these options (and Classic Schemes, and there is a significant another 130,000ha in upland ELS grassland risk that farmers will be forced to destroy re- ■ they provide pollination services for options) it is likely that these cover many created grasslands with developing wildlife agricultural crops; important grassland sites: Natural England value, to offset the lost scheme funding. ■ they provide health and well-being estimate 27,000ha of semi-natural grassland benefits to visitors and residents; occur within ELS. However, because ELS is ■ they produce high quality, better tasting not targeted and habitats are not properly and possibly healthier food; and recorded when farms enter ELS, it is difficult Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 13/7/11 16:44 Page 18

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The Biodiversity Convention The Convention on Biological Diversity (1992) has been implemented in England since 2002 through the England Biodiversity Strategy, which included a series of action plans for priority grassland habitats. In the last ten years there has been little progress towards achieving the targets set out in these plans. This is illustrated by the failure to achieve the Countdown 2010 biodiversity target. New targets and principles have been agreed as a result of the Nagoya Conference in November 2010, and a new England Biodiversity Strategy, linked with the Natural Environment White Paper, have recently been published. Both the new England Biodiversity Strategy and the White Paper will influence the future crane’s-bill, melancholy thistle and of England’s semi-natural grasslands. The CASE STUDY globeflower, are characteristic of northern extent to which they help reverse the latitudes and are found close to their continuing decline of England’s grasslands Hay Time southern boundary in the North Pennines. will be a test of the current Government’s commitment to being the ‘Greenest The North Pennines AONB Farmers in the North Pennines have been Government Ever’. Partnership’s hay meadow able to claim financial incentives for restoration project managing their hay meadows non- Existing conservation Within the UK, species-rich hay meadows intensively since the 1980s. However, at the turn of the 21st century, even where action are a rare habitat, having declined by more than 97% over the past 60 years as a result traditional management practices had been There is a significant amount of existing of progressive agricultural intensification. restored to meadows that had lost their action to conserve England’s surviving The meadows found in the North Pennines special species, there was little evidence of semi-natural grasslands and their wildlife. are a special type, characteristic of the their return and many meadows were Conservation charities play a vital role in harsh conditions typical of hilly and continuing to decline in quality. The this, both on the ground, developing mountainous regions across Europe. These limited potential for seeds to migrate projects, influencing policy and co- ‘upland’ or ‘mountain’ hay meadows are naturally from neighbouring fields owing ordinating the action. There are projects now very rare, with little more than 900ha to the rarity and highly dispersed nature that focus on specific types of grassland thought to remain in the UK. With 350ha of these species-rich meadows is an (e.g. Hay Time, Floodplain Meadows of upland hay meadows, the North important factor. Project) or on particular areas (e.g. Weald Pennines AONB is an important place for The process of natural seed migration can Meadows Initiative, Two Moors). In 2011, this special habitat. be speeded up significantly by the direct a UK Grasslands Forum was established to From a botanical perspective, the addition of seed that has been harvested bring together all the organisations importance of upland hay meadows lies in from nearby species-rich meadows. This interested in grasslands and their the rich diversity of wild plants that grow in approach has been experimentally and conservation. This Forum aims to provide them. The best meadows can support up practically demonstrated, and seed coherence and co-ordination to the UK’s to 120 different species of flowering plant. addition is now a recognised and grassland conservation activities. Many of these species, such as wood increasingly used technique for grassland restoration. Experimental work has also shown that the seeds of different species should be introduced at different stages of the meadow restoration process. At the first stage, species such as yellow-rattle, red clover, sweet vernal-grass and meadow buttercup should be introduced, as these plants change the soil microbial conditions so that they are suitable for more specialised meadow plants to colonise. Yellow-rattle is a particularly important plant as it parasitises and weakens grasses, thus creating patches of bare soil where other species can establish. The second stage of the restoration process is to Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 13/7/11 16:44 Page 19

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Both the new England Biodiversity Strategy and the Natural Environment White Paper will influence the future of England’s semi-natural grasslands.

introduce species associated with classic Effective restoration of natural habitats is a upland hay meadows, such as wood crane’s- process that takes years, and often decades, bill, globeflower and lady’s-mantles, to achieve. The management and restoration although it may take a number of years of hay meadows is particularly complicated before soil conditions change sufficiently because it depends on appropriate human to enable a diverse vegetation to flourish. intervention on an on-going basis. We address these issues by working on meadows Since May 2006, the North Pennines AONB that are subject to ten-year management Partnership has been working closely with agreements under the terms of agri- farmers and colleagues from Natural England, environment schemes such as the Higher through the Hay Time project, to restore Level Scheme of Environmental Stewardship. meadows that have lost their characteristic plant species. In the early summer, between Are the flowers coming back? To help May and July, the team carry out botanical answer this question, Hay Time project surveys of meadows. These surveys help to officers, supported by a band of skilled identify sites that are suitable for restoration volunteers, carry out monitoring surveys or enhancement, sites from which seed can each year to assess the number of wild be harvested, and sites where we can provide plants found in the meadows. Over the habitat management advice. Between 2006 winter months, we analyse the data and 2010, we surveyed 930 fields and visited collected and so are able to assess the real more than 230 farms to give hay meadow impact of our work on this precious habitat. management advice. Using special Hay Time – North Pennines is a collaboration machinery, we then harvest either the seed- between the North Pennines AONB bearing top of the hay crop or the entire crop Partnership and the Yorkshire Dales and spread it as ‘green hay’ on a nearby Millennium Trust. It is supported by a County meadow. Not only does this approach enable Durham Environment Trust CDENT PREMIER the effective transfer of seeds, a process that Award under the Landfill Communities Fund, would take decades to occur naturally, but Natural England via the Countdown 2010 also ensures that the unique genetic integrity Biodiversity Action Fund and the Heritage of these meadows is maintained. Between Lottery Fund (HLF). 2006 and 2010, 140.5ha of hay meadow has received locally harvested seed in this way. Rebecca Barrett Project Development Officer, North Pennines AONB Partnership Sadly, some of the most special upland hay meadow plants are now becoming so scarce that in some areas they are not abundant enough for us to harvest them using machinery. For these plants, we have enlisted the help of volunteers to gather seed by hand from species-rich banks and roadside verges. This seed is either spread directly onto meadows or grown-on over one or two years until the young plants are robust enough to be planted out. Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 13/7/11 16:44 Page 20

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CASE STUDY

Weald Meadows Initiative Gardens, Kew, Sussex University – Centre for Community Engagement, the National Trust The Weald Meadows Initiative (WMI) was and the Sussex Wetland Landscapes Project. launched in 1996 by the High Weald AONB Unit, the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Early WMG work included the successful Group (FWAG) and Agrifactors Southern ‘Vanishing Meadows’ exhibition in 2009, Ltd. This unique public-private partnership and the group has developed trial and piloted a project in the Weald for harvesting research projects, including enhancement wild flower and grass seeds, with a part- plots at Wakehurst Place and on washlands time advisory service operated through meadows in Sussex, which are supported by FWAG. Demand for the advice and seed Kew’s Restoration Ecology Team and the grew and a part-time co-ordinator was Millennium Seed Bank. With kind permission appointed in 1997 - fulltime in 1999, with of many meadow owners in 2010, Kew and support from a range of funders. Since the WMI hand-collected high quality November 2009, the WMI partnership, led samples of wildflower and grass seed from and hosted by the High Weald Landscape local meadows. The WMG anticipate that, Trust (HWLT) made 2010 a milestone year with specialist support from the Millennium for this pivotal project (SENSE?). Seed Bank, it can start to unravel the secrets and disseminate key facts for optimum Not only does this local project continue to wildflower seed germination from 2011. deliver and record its groundbreaking work, it also supports landowners by giving advice In April 2011, a formal and unique and assistance other organisations with a partnership was secured between The High national remit. In 2009/10 this advice could Weald Landscape Trust - Weald Meadows have made a difference to up to 635ha of Initiative (HWLT - WMI) and The Royal meadows in the Weald and across the UK. Botanic Gardens Kew - called a Memorandum of Collaboration (MoC). The WMI continues to support the For this ground breaking and well managed management of ancient meadows through project, this accolade provides recognition sustainably harvesting wild grass and flower for the 15 years of meadow enhancement, seed for the enhancement and creation of regeneration, data collation and specialist new diverse meadows. Biodiversity targets at meadows knowledge making the initiative a a number of sites have increased annually best practice leader in its area and through through the use of Weald Native Origin Seed the projects experiences, a national example (WNOS) and the Beech Estates whole-crop worth following. landscape-scale method, developed by manager and HWLT trustee, Keith Datchler. Dawn Brickwood, High Weald Landscape Trust Partnerships have been the key to the continuing success of the WMI, particularly in the formation of the Weald Meadows Group (WMG) in 2008. This group is made up of the HWLT-WMI, The Royal Botanic Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 13/7/11 16:44 Page 21

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Chapter Four What factors are driving change on grasslands now?

Semi-natural grasslands, whether in herbicides, or to fuel the transport of protein grasslands to replace that lost food protected areas or not, are under constant feed, such as soya from South America. production. pressure from a number of factors. These Intensively managed grasslands produce two include climate change; the continuing or three times as many animals as extensively Intensive agriculture effects of agricultural intensification and managed semi-natural grasslands, meaning abandonment; pressure to acquire land to that overall, far more methane is produced As recently recognised in the EU Biodiversity build houses, infrastructure or for industry; from intensive livestock farming than Strategy, intensification of agriculture has recreational activities; and the fragmentation extensive systems. This is true even though been almost entirely responsible for the of the grassland resource. individual animals may produce more wholesale loss of semi-natural grasslands methane when grazing on semi-natural land. across Europe and especially in England, as a result of increases in fertiliser application, Climate change Semi-natural grasslands store much more herbicide use, cultivation, re-seeding with carbon than intensively managed grasslands. Adaptation agricultural grasses and drainage. Losses of So there is a great opportunity to increase Climate change is likely to lead to England habitat have slowed in recent years, the amount of carbon stored in grassland becoming warmer, possibly wetter, with an although they continue, especially for small soils and vegetation by shifting from increase in the frequency of extreme weather fragments of grassland. Intensive agriculture intensive production systems to extensive events, including drought, flood and has also driven abandonment of marginal ones. This is an essential ecosystem service extremes of temperature. Grassland wildlife grasslands, either because there are no provided by semi-natural grasslands, and will find that the conditions they prefer have livestock on arable farms, or because the one that is currently under-utilised. shifted to a different place in England (or semi-natural grasslands are irrelevant or that there are no places in England where inconvenient for intensive livestock systems. their preferred conditions occur). This is Biofuels Intensive agriculture continues to have especially true of wildlife communities indirect effects on surviving semi-natural The EU Renewable Energy Directive provided associated with cold conditions. Conversely, grasslands, through eutrophication, drainage a legal framework to enable EU Member those species with a toehold in southern and water abstraction. Eutrophication is still States to support the production of biofuel England may find there are many more a major problem (although nitrogen comes crops. In the UK these could include wheat places where they can flourish. There will from a variety of sources, including airborne and oil-seed rape, while elsewhere in the be winners and losers, but the challenge for deposition, from industrial and transport world sugar cane and oil palm are the main all wildlife will be the ability to move to the emissions). While agri-environment schemes crops. The Directive aims to protect carbon- new places where their preferred conditions have provided some respite in recent rich habitats from conversion to arable land occur. In the fragmented landscapes of decades, their future is uncertain and they to produce biofuel crops. Protection is England, the distances between suitable cannot be regarded as an effective afforded to forest and peatlands, but only habitat patches are simply too great to protection mechanism. ‘highly biodiverse grasslands’ are protected enable wildlife to make those moves. under the Directive. This poses a risk to Mitigation grasslands across the world from conversion Sustainable intensification Grasslands store a great deal of England’s to biofuel production. While it is less likely As the global population increases, food carbon stock, but they could store much, that semi-natural grasslands in England will security will become an increasingly much more. Intensively managed grasslands be converted to biofuel production, the UK important issue. A recent report to Defra, and livestock contribute around 5% of may be responsible for driving grassland loss the Foresight report, identified the steps that England’s greenhouse gas emissions. Their elsewhere, including in Europe, if biofuels are needed to ensure a stable, secure food management is carbon-hungry, because it become a significant energy source for supply for the world. One approach is dependent on fossil fuels to provide the transport, for example. Producing biofuels advocated was ‘sustainable intensification’. energy to produce artificial fertilisers and on arable land also places a pressure on Simply put, this means increasing food Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 13/7/11 16:44 Page 22

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The rules governing the Single Payment Scheme are unhelpful for semi-natural grasslands and fail to recognise their environmental and heritage value and economic handicaps.

production from land currently used to agricultural land. Because Single Payment in produce food, while protecting natural England is partly based on the farm’s historic resources elsewhere. One consequence of entitlements, which were linked to this approach in England could be that the production, those farmers who do provide nearly 1.5 million hectares of semi-improved such goods and services (including healthy grassland would be converted into intensively wildlife populations) generally receive less managed improved grassland, or even that Single Payment than farmers who manage grassland could be converted into more their land intensively. productive forage maize production (as is Farmers can also be punished by having already happening in some dairying areas). their Single Payment reduced if they have The alternative model is to recognise that, thick hedges or leave scrubby margins as a small country with a high population, around fields, despite these being valuable while England can produce more of its own wildlife habitats. Areas of scrub or field trees, food (thereby reducing imported protein regardless of their wildlife value, also reduce for example), England’s agricultural land the area eligible for Single Payment and are provides many different useful functions therefore at risk of removal. A rule that is for society, including the whole range of meant to ensure that permanent pasture is ecosystem services previously described. protected from cultivation is rendered It also means that we may have to accept meaningless in England when the definition eating less red meat, and that the meat of permanent pasture has been stretched to we do eat is produced more sustainably, include pastures that are re-seeded with wherever it is produced. agricultural grasses. protection they are afforded in the NPPF. The Common Agricultural Development pressures There may also be an opportunity to Policy (CAP) The planning system has historically identify, in development plans, areas where restoring or re-creating grasslands should be The current CAP accounts for nearly half of controlled where development takes place a priority. the entire EU budget, and 80% of this is and the impact of that development. spent on direct payments to farmers (the Grasslands have always been vulnerable to Single Payment). These payments development, because they are intrinsically Recreational activities theoretically ensure that farmers maintain easier to exploit than other habitats, such as Recreational activities can both drive the ‘good agricultural and environmental woodlands or wetlands. In the past 20 years, need to protect and maintain grasslands condition’ (GAEC) on their land, including planning guidance has helped local planning (such as local parks and other green spaces – protecting semi-natural grasslands (see EIA authorities to draw up Local Plans that have collectively, Green Infrastructure) and affect (Agriculture) text box). However, in practice, reduced the impact of development on their value for wildlife. the rules governing who receives the Single semi-natural grasslands, with varying Payment, and the GAEC rules, are at best success. A new National Planning Policy There are thought to be nearly 1.4 million blind to the fate of England’s semi-natural Framework (NPPF) is now being prepared, horses kept for recreation in the UK. Many grasslands, and at worst actively working to and local authorities now have a duty to semi-natural grasslands have been damaged threaten their future. There is no link promote sustainable development. While by equine use, including the use of fertiliser, between the Single Payment (which can this may not have a great impact on re-seeding and overgrazing. Yet horse- exceed £200 per ha per annum), and the protected grasslands, the future of Local grazing can help provide conditions where provision of public goods and services from Wildlife Site grasslands depends on the grassland wildlife can thrive. Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 13/7/11 16:45 Page 23

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CASE STUDY Community grasslands CASE STUDY Communities value their local grasslands Grasslands and equines for a variety of reasons, including for their The Grasslands Trust Horses are often seen as poor grazers of wildlife, as places for relaxation (walking Community Grasslands semi-natural grasslands, but their selectivity the dog) or for events. While dog-walkers Project can be an advantage for conservation undoubtedly value their local grasslands as The Grasslands Trust is developing the grazing. Horses and species-rich grasslands places to exercise (and empty) their dogs, principles of Community Grasslands. go particularly well together, as the low- dog-walking can have profound impacts on Local communities that have grasslands fertility, high-fibre forage available from the character and wildlife of semi-natural that they value get involved in their such swards are exactly what a horse grasslands in public spaces. Unleashed management, and enjoy and gain a requires, rather than the high-sugar, low- dogs disturb ground-nesting birds, while sense of community ownership of the fibre fare of intensive ryegrass/clover eutrophication is also a problem where grassland. The Trust has developed a pastures, which can be positively dog-walkers do not pick up their dog’s Community Grassland project near its dangerous to them. Properly managed, excrement. Dogs and livestock often do head office in Eastleigh, Hampshire, and horses have been shown to be successful not mix, making grazing a challenge on one at its National Nature Reserve at in maintaining and even increasing species- grassland sites used by dog-walkers. Carmel, Carmarthenshire. richness, and they are particularly good at grazing wetlands, where they will take coarser grasses, for example, purple moor- grass, and forbs which other animals avoid. There are now approaching 1.4 million horses in the UK, part of an industry worth £4bn in 2005. The amount of grassland used by horses has not been definitively ascertained, but estimates range from 0.8 million hectares to 1 million hectares. The scale of the demand for land is part of the problem, which leads to the intensive use and overgrazing that in turn creates the bad image. Not only do horse owners need to understand that their animals can benefit from large areas of low-fertility grassland, but conservation managers need also to understand the suitability of horses as grazers, and in particular as a market for species-rich hay. Now that obesity is seen as the biggest welfare issue for horses in the UK, owners might begin to consider the benefits of re-seeding their ryegrass pastures with native meadow species, to the benefit of both horses and wildlife. Elizabeth O’Beirne-Ranelagh, FWAG Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 14/7/11 09:46 Page 24

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CASE STUDY

Hocombe Mead Local Nature Reserve, Hampshire The Hocombe Mead project, which promotes the value of a LNR to its local community, was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The project, which was a joint partnership with Eastleigh Borough Council, has enabled a wide range of individuals and groups of all ages and backgrounds to enjoy this beautiful ancient meadow and woodland. A strong volunteer group has learnt new and traditional skills that have been put to good effect in making improvements to the reserve’s infrastructure and access, as well as carrying out work on a conservation management plan. These volunteers have now formed themselves into the ‘Friends of Hocombe’, a constituted, self-funded community group whose aim is to be the Government’s ‘Every Child Matters’, an sustainable face of conservation at the reserve. emphasis on outdoor play and learning, The local community has also taken to heart reducing obesity, physical challenge, risk the monthly events organised at the site, taking and the environment. including more traditional wildlife walks and The next stage will take the concept of the talks, as well as ‘ first time’ events such as a Hocombe project and develop it into a Christmas carol evening and candlelit walk, borough-wide educational package of formal teddy bears’ picnic and family forest school and informal learning opportunities to days. An exceptional event saw the reserve encourage the people of Eastleigh to host a raptor day, with delighted children become actively involved in the conservation watching these charismatic birds fly over of their borough’s natural and built heritage. the meadow. With a strap line of ‘4 C’s’ – conservation, Without doubt, this project has brought community involvement, communication and larger numbers to the reserve, learning personal challenge – the project can become about and enjoying this hidden site on their a bedrock for a wider national approach to doorstep. Many have found a new interest in ‘local grasslands for local people’. nature or rekindled memories from days past; parents are becoming enduring educators, with the reserve as their classroom, also supporting the Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 14/7/11 09:47 Page 25

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A review of the coherence of England’s ecological networks, ‘Making Space for Nature’, was published in 2010. It concluded that England’s wildlife was continuing to decline, and that fragmentation was a key reason behind this decline.

Fragmentation England’s semi-natural grasslands are A review of the coherence of England’s A shift towards landscape-scale conservation now severely fragmented, although these ecological networks, ‘Making Space for means reducing fragmentation of semi- fragments are often clustered in areas Nature’, was published in 2010. It concluded natural grasslands by: where topography has prevented that England’s wildlife was continuing to ■ protecting the remaining resource more wholesale conversion to intensive decline, and that fragmentation was a key effectively; agriculture. Because of this, semi-natural reason behind this decline. The report ■ grasslands are more likely to be found recommended a number of ways to reverse enlarging existing small sites through within Areas of Outstanding Natural this decline, summed up as more semi- habitat restoration and re-creation; and Beauty, Heritage Coastline and National natural land, better managed, in bigger ■ creating new semi-natural grasslands Parks. Semi-natural grasslands are also fragments, with more connections between in the best locations to link together found in greater numbers within the the fragments – termed ‘landscape-scale currently disconnected and isolated Defence Estate (including the large conservation’. Some semi-natural grassland fragments. training areas such as Salisbury Plain, habitats, such as lowland meadows, are now To achieve this will require: Breckland, Dartmoor, and the found mainly in small isolated fragments: ■ Hampshire and Dorset ranges) and the those outside protected areas are careful planning to identify the areas Forestry Commission estate. This is desperately vulnerable. where most benefit can be achieved because they have escaped the impact for the resources available; of modern agriculture. ■ the close involvement of local landowners and communities, to achieve a consensus for action; ■ a re-balancing of current land-uses away from intensive food production towards providing a range of ecosystem services; and ■ funding to support this change, in the form of redistribution of CAP payments, payments for ecosystem services, and other sources of funding. Landscape-scale action for grasslands is already happening in a few places in England. Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 13/7/11 16:46 Page 26

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Conclusions

What needs to be done ■ Defra and the Department of Health ■ Reform the Single Payment eligibility working together needs to engage the rules so that semi-natural grasslands and The wildlife, landscape character and public to help people understand the extensive management systems are archaeology of semi-natural grasslands, need consequences of eating red meat eligible for support; and make available action to prevent them from disappearing produced intensively, such that they a special Permanent Pasture Premium completely in our life-times. The consume less, and more healthy, red for farmers who commit to maintain Government needs to lead many of these meat produced using extensive grassland these grasslands. actions: individual land-owners can do their systems that provide a range of public ■ bit, and the public can also play a role, but Reform the GAEC rules such that goods and services. the future of England’s grasslands depends extensive grassland management is ■ on Government action to regulate, educate Natural England should notify as SSSIs encouraged. and provide incentives for sympathetic all surviving significant semi-natural ■ Increase the proportion of CAP budget management. The following actions are the grasslands. spent on Agri-Environment schemes. ■ highest priority: Defra must revise the EIA (Agriculture) ■ Environmental Stewardship–- Regulations so they become an ■ The Government should implement in ■ make the schemes much simpler, effective tool for protecting semi- full the recommendations in ‘Making allowing capital works to be paid as natural grasslands. Space for Nature’. part of ELS. ■ Defra should make it a priority to prepare ■ Defra, working with Natural England, ■ target ELS grassland options towards a comprehensive Grasslands Inventory, should ensure that existing agri- semi-natural grasslands. based on Natural England’s Lowland environment schemes, in particular Entry Grassland Inventory; and develop a Level Scheme, are targeted at farmers Planning and communities monitoring system to ensure grasslands with semi-natural grasslands. Farmers are maintained in good condition. ■ The new planning system needs to entering ELS could be required to enter protect existing semi-natural grasslands ■ Government policy should ensure that their semi-natural grasslands into very from development, and support biofuels are not produced from areas low input options as a condition of restoration and creation of new supporting important grasslands, either entering the farm into ELS. grasslands in new developments. ■ domestically or abroad. On renewal, Natural England should ■ The Grasslands Trust will develop a ■ Government policy should ensure that review the existing coverage of grassland network of Community Grasslands which tree-planting does not occur on existing options in ELS to ensure the very low re-connects people with grasslands. input option is targeted at the most semi-natural grasslands, or in areas ■ A series of training programmes should valuable grasslands. where grassland restoration or re- be established for Farmers/Natural ■ creation is the higher priority. Defra should develop a system to pay England/Defra/land agents/local grassland owners to provide the CAP reform government advisors to recognise ecosystem services supplied to society semi-natural grasslands, understand Long-term CAP reform must focus on by sympathetic management of semi- the value of these grasslands and the subsidies paying only for public goods and natural grasslands. valuable roles they play. ■ The Government should recognise and services. In the short term: quantify the value of carbon storage in ■ Revise the definition of permanent Encouragement, through local branding, grasslands and develop policies that pasture such that it applies to of farmers and communities that produce encourage carbon storage and permanent pastures with high wildlife foods that recognises the value of sequestration through support for value and provides a range of other extensively farmed semi-natural grasslands. extensive grassland management. ecosystem services. Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 13/7/11 16:46 Page 27

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For more information about this report including further case studies and references, please visit http://www.grasslands-trust.org/project.php?projectid=7

The Grasslands Trust The Grasslands Trust is a UK Registered Charity (No. 1097893) and Company Limited by Guarantee founded in 2002 in order to reverse the decline of our wildlife- rich grasslands. Our Vision: is that one day, everyone will live near a wildlife-rich grassland. Our Mission: is to reinstate grasslands as a significant part of our natural heritage for the benefit of people and wildlife. Our Aims: ■ To secure the future of grassland sites of beauty, special wildlife, landscape or cultural value. ■ To restore degraded grasslands to their former glory. ■ To advise farmers, landowners and the public on grassland management and restoration. ■ To raise awareness of the value and vulnerability of grasslands for wildlife and also for their archaeology, social, historical and landscape value.

The Grasslands Trust is based at

Eastleigh Works Campbell Road Eastleigh Hampshire SO50 5AD 02380 650093

www.grasslands-trust.org [email protected] Natures Tapestry 28pp:Layout 1 14/7/11 10:52 Page 28