What Is the Conserving Scottish Machair LIFE+ Project?

Issue 1, June 2010 Hello, welcome to the first Conserving Scottish Machair LIFE+ Project Newsletter The purpose of this newsletter is to provide you with some background information about Inside this issue the project, its ultimate aims, objectives and progress to date. Getting to know us We will be issuing more of these newsletters as the project progresses. Meet the Team who will be working with crofters to maintain What is the Conserving Scottish the machair’s rich wildlife. Machair LIFE+ Project?

Project objectives Read about the project’s ambitious plans to support traditional crofting practices across the Isles.

Cultivated machair © RSPB

We are a four year project, aiming conservation interest of the machair. based in Balivanich, Benbecula to conserve 70% of the world’s The project is supported by the and will focus on machair within Project Highlights machair and its associated species. European Union LIFE+ scheme, the designated Natura 2000 sites, Learn about how the project has We started in January 2010, and The Royal Society for the Protection which occur mainly in the Uists, but begun to make progress through we will provide support to the of Birds (RSPB), Scottish Natural also encompasses areas of Lewis, securing machinery and funding crofting community to implement Heritage (SNH), Comhairle nan Barra, Coll, Tiree, Islay, Colonsay management works. and demonstrate sustainable land Eilean Siar (CnES) and the Scottish and Oronsay. management that optimises the Crofting Federation (SFC). We are

What is Machair? Machair is a rare, bio-diverse coastal grassland, unique to the north-western fringe of Europe. 70% of it is found in western What species will the Scotland, forming when fine project be helping? shell sand blows landwards on Find out about some of the prevailing westerly winds, creating species that the project will help a fertile, low-lying plain. For to conserve through its work. generations, man has worked and moulded machair in a low intensity crofting system that has created a mosaic of open habitats. Working the machair is a large part of Gaelic culture, supporting communities and wildlife like no

other habitat. Traditional stooks on South Uist © RSPB

Getting to know us

The Project is being managed by a small, dedicated team, from their offices in Balivanich, Benbecula. For contact details, see backpage.

Jonathan Hudson farmers and wildlife alike. Julia Project Manager is already enjoying meeting and Before taking up this post, Jonathan helping crofters to access funding was an ecological consultant; but which will enable them to continue also has wide experience of national crofting while benefiting the policy, IT and business change machair’s unique wildlife interest. project management, gained within the Civil Service. This role Margaret Howarth brings the conservation and project Project Administrator management elements of his Margaret’s is probably the first diverse past experience together voice you’ll hear if you phone and he is looking forward to working the project office. After enjoying with crofting communities and several holidays in the Uists, partner organisations, to manage Margaret relocated to North Uist the project towards a successful to be closer to the wildlife and the outcome for all. natural unspoiled surroundings. As such, she leapt at the chance to be Julia Gallagher part of a project that would work Project Advisory Officer with crofters to ensure the future Julia has worked for 12 years with conservation of the machair. the RSPB and other conservation organisations helping and advising farmers and land managers about Binding at Vallay Island © RSPB how farming practices can benefit

Project Objectives

Traditional crofting systems are into stooks. These stooks are farming is now unique to the British ground due to recent practices at the very heart of biodiversity then stacked and left to stand Isles. The ability of crofters to of under sowing crops with grass across the machair landscape. until being fed out to cattle in the maintain these traditional practices to provide additional cattle feed. This project will work with crofters winter. The stacks are great for are increasingly under pressure; This project will support crofters to help maintain this special seed eating birds such as the contributing factors include loss to maintain traditional practices in agricultural system. Machair corn bunting, which is in drastic of manpower to harvest and stack support of machair’s rich wildlife, has been traditionally cropped decline both nationally and on the crops, a lack of suitable machinery, while still maintaining viable crops with oats, barley and grass to Isles. This “low intensive” style of and a decline in the area of fallow for stock. produce feed for cattle and sheep stock. Since the cropped land is left fallow for two to three years between crops, it allows for the growth of annual plants which attract seed eating birds and nectar loving insects. The nationally scarce Great Yellow Bumblebee is one such insect to benefit from this system of farming; whilst ground nesting birds such as lapwing also benefit from the bare ground of fallow years, for nesting.

Crops have been traditionally harvested using reaper binders, which collect and bind the corn Stack building at Clachan © Jamie Boyle, RSPB

2010 Machair LIFE+ Land Management Options

We have now developed the 2010 Machair LIFE+ Land Management Options for promotion to crofters for this season. These options are being offered to encourage traditional crofting practices and to preserve genetic diversity of the machair habitat. The options are for the 2010 crofting season and will include an annual payment to compensate the crofter for any reduction in crop yield or quality caused by the later harvesting of crops.

Late-cut Arable Silage increase the chance of plants in Harvesting Local Seed silage option, this measure will also Through delaying the cutting the crop to flower and seed. The Increasing the area of corn kept as provide cover for corncrake and of cropped machair fields, this corn seed will have ripened and a seed crop will secure the supply of corn buntings at a time when the measure will provide cover for hardened and be of more benefit to local seed, and preserve the genetic juvenile birds are very vulnerable to corncrake and corn buntings at a small birds when the corn is fed out integrity of Uist seed, which will predation. time when the juvenile birds are in winter. help to maintain traditional machair very vulnerable to predation. It will rotations. Like the late-cut arable For further information about these options, please contact us. Project Highlights

The project office is now fully A large agricultural storage shed Scheme. Applications in 2010 A contract for botanical and operational. has been ordered and supplied will be submitted by the project invertebrate biodiversity to the Argyll location of the on behalf of crofters from South monitoring on arable machair We have sourced and purchased project; and we are currently Uist, Barra, Baleshare and North has been awarded. We are a project seaweed spreader. investigating various options Uist. This management will help seeking help and support from This has already been used on for storage on the Uists for the maintain machair habitat within crofting townships in surveying some areas of the North Uist project machinery and locally Kilpheder, Smerclate, Eoligarry areas of arable machair within Natura site. produced seed. and North Uist SAC/SPA. Natura sites. Several township clerks and their associated We have ordered a modern We have promoted and paid for We are working with partners crofters have already very kindly reaper/binder to enable a seaweed scheme for North and stakeholders to develop an offered their support for this traditional stacking of harvested Uist, South Uist and Benbecula enhanced coordinated Goose work. corn. This is being shipped from crofting townships. Over 20 Management scheme to improve a company based in Turkey. townships that responded have crop protection. We have now developed the More project machinery is now collected and applied menu of 2010 Machair LIFE+ planned very soon. seaweed for this season within We now have a dedicated Land Management Options for the designated sites. project website. Make sure promotion to crofters for this We’ve ordered a large batch of you take a look to keep up to season. Full details of these can baler twine to assist the binding We are working with crofters date with project progress and be found at the top of this page. process for this season. Twine to access government funding events. will then be distributed to to manage the machair under See www.machairlife.org.uk crofters free of charge. the Scottish Rural Development

What Species Will The Project Be Helping?

© RSPB Images © RSPB Images © RSPB Images Corncrake Ringed Plover Chough Crex crex Charadrius hiaticula Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax Corncrakes migrate each spring from their Ringed plover is a migratory bird species using This member of the crow family is confined to a African wintering quarters to the machair. Its the sandy soils to lay its eggs along the western relict population centred on the Argyll islands. It rasping call is familiar to locals and visitors to the coasts. The project area supports large numbers has a curved crimson bill and red legs and feeds Western Isles alike. Corncrake is red-listed in the of ringed plover in both summer and winter. In in cattle grazed machair areas. Listed on Annex UK inventory of Birds of Conservation Concern, 1984, the UK breeding population was estimated I of the Birds Directive, the most recent estimate and is listed on Annex I of the EU Birds Directive. at 8,600 pairs, with 25% of these on the Western of the UK chough population is 498 pairs (2002). The UK population is just 1,278 calling (territorial) Isles. However, there have been declines on the The project area supports around 35 breeding males. About half of this total is found within the Isles in recent years. The project area currently pairs. Choughs are amber-listed in the UK’s project area, with most of the remainder found supports an estimated 1,000 breeding pairs. inventory of Birds of Conservation Concern. adjacent to the project area on the islands off the west coast of Scotland.

© RSPB Images © RSPB Martin Scott Corn Bunting Dunlin © RSPB Images Emberiza calandra Calidris alpina schinzii Great Yellow Bumblebee Known locally as “fat bird of the barley”, corn Dunlin nest on the machair and can be found Bombus distinguendus bunting is a lowland farmland bird. It is a stout, feeding in wetter areas or along the shores. Once found across the UK, the great yellow brown bird which flies off with a fluttering flight Dunlin is a migratory bird species listed on Annex bumblebee is a UK BAP priority species, and with its legs characteristically ‘dangling’. In I of the Birds Directive. The UK has an estimated and is now nationally scarce. It is confined to summer they prefer open farmland and in winter breeding population of 9,150 breeding pairs. The traditional crofting areas, such as the machair they are found in stubbles, root crops, weedy project area supports up to 1,300 breeding pairs of the Hebrides, Orkney, Coll and Tiree. Like fields and cattle or stockyards. It is red-listed of Dunlin – about 14% of the UK population. all bees, the great yellow bumblebee needs an in the UK inventory of Birds of Conservation abundant food supply in its breeding season, Concern. but intensification of summer grazing is now damaging already declining populations because Rare plant species associated with machair which will also benefit from the project the plant life protecting their nests is eaten back and flowering is prevented. Autumn and winter Irish lady’s tresses White pyramidal orchid grazing is better because it allows the pasture to Spiranthes romanzoffiana Anacamptis pyramidalis grow wild in the spring time when the bees nest. More information about these species can be Early marsh orchid found at the UK Biodiversity Action Plan website. Dactylorhiza incarnate

Contact Information We’re on the ‘net! For more information, please visit www.machairlife.org.uk Email: [email protected] • Telephone: 01870 603361 Conserving Scottish Machair LIFE+ Project, CRP Building, East Camp, Balivanich, Benbecula HS7 5LA