BNGLPS Landscape Conservation Action Plan
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Breaking New Ground Landscape Conservation Action Plan - APPENDIX CONTENTS A1 Ground Disturbance P3 C10 Journal of Brecks Studies p187 A2 Conserving the Brecks Wildlife Sites P21 C11 Beastly Brecks p192 A3 Pingo Project p26 C12 Upon This Rock p202 A4 Pine Lines and Pine Connections p33 C13 Brecks Vernacular Materials & Craft Skills p208 A5 Brandon Engine House Restoration p47 C14 Flint in the Brecks p212 A6 Breaking New Ground Grant Fund p50 C15 Brecks Warrens and Lodges p221 B1 People’s History of Thetford Forest p60 C16 Sheep in the Brecks p229 B2 Enchanted Forest p67 C17 Brecks Military History p238 B3 Family Fun p73 C18 Creatively Interpreting the Brecks p246 B4 Wildlife Recorders of Tomorrow p79 C19 Landscape Revolution p253 C1 Brecks Forest Way p92 D1 Discovering the Archaeological Landscape of the p262 Brecks Training Programme C2 Brecks Earth Heritage p98 D2 Caring for the Built Heritage of the Brecks p273 C3 Brecks Rides p109 D3 Heritage Skills Work Placements p278 C4 Wings Over the Brecks p117 D4 Geological Landscapes-the Brecks for Land Managers p279 C5 Brecks heritage Trail p133 D5 Communicating the Ice Age Brecks p288 C6 LiDAR p144 D6 Breaking New Ground in the School Ground p296 C7 Brecks Digital Access p153 D7 Brecks Uncovered p309 C8 Brecks From Above p167 D8 Barnham Cross Common: Skills for the future p315 C9 Connecting the Landscape with its Archives p178 Appendices 2 A1- Ground Disturbance Reference Delivery Summary Audience Outputs Outcomes Cost Lead (and (Including Partners) contingency and inflation) A1: Ground Natural Opportunity mapping Landscape Development of Ensures that all BNG Project total Disturbance England and recreation of and Heritage detailed Historic projects can be £134,868 areas of traditional Professionals Environment undertaken HLF: £86,390 (Norfolk ‘Brecks’ by various Landowners, Opportunity GIS successfully without (64%) Wildlife methods of Ground Land mapping damaging landscape. In-kind: £35,978 Trust Disturbance on managers, (27%) selected areas, volunteers, 10+ Ha of new Provides guidance to Volunteer: RSPB leading to a better interest ground enable future work to £4,250 (3%) understanding of groups disturbance be undertaken in full Cash: £8,250 Forestry management treatment knowledge of historic (6%) Commission requirements for undertaken at importance of sites Brecks species 15 sites Historic Suffolk CC diversity. including Populations of Environment SSSIs, Roadside characteristic Brecks work (£23,918) Norfolk CC This is a (literally) Nature Reserves plants, invertebrates ground breaking and agricultural and birds expanded Ground project to establish holdings University and secured. Disturbance: and disseminate best of East Landscape scale Weeting Heath practice guidance for Anglia) 15 community habitat links created (£33,538) land management events and throughout the volunteer Long-term volunteer Brecks Heath Brecks engagement, engagement in bare Partnership Appendices 3 ground creation sites(4) Legacy event Increasing (£21,350) held to share collaboration between best practice professions. Stanton Street Best practice (£20,703) guidance Involving volunteers in historic Roadside Nature Consultation environment work Reserves with landowners and visits. (£20,100) / managers Dissemination of Monitoring On-line guidance knowledge and best (£13,200) document practice guidance produced which will inform land Best Practice management Guidance techniques (£2,059) throughout the Brecks and nationally Delivery Partner organisations: Organisation: Role: Norfolk Wildlife Trust Delivery partners RSPB Forestry Commission Natural England Norfolk County Council Suffolk County Council University of East Anglia Appendices 4 Project Need This project is literally breaking new (and old) ground. There has been an historical decline in the creation of broken/bare ground in The Brecks – an area of unique climate and soils and historical grazing, cultivation and fallow. There has been a consequent decline in the flora and fauna associated with bare ground (Dolman et al 2010). Partnership (FC, UEA, Butterfly Conservation and Plantlife) experiments have now shown that different types of ground disturbance have a range of beneficial effects for these bare-ground dependent species (Pedley et al 2013). The Breckland Biodiversity Audit (BBA) not only recorded 12, 845 species in Brecks, but identified 2149 of national importance as Brecks priority species. The Brecks supports 28% of all UK BAP species in just 0.4% of the UK’s land area, including rare species of heath and coastal habitats. The BBA highlighted the importance of grazing and disturbance in combination for 149 priority invertebrate and plant species and physical disturbance with light or no grazing supporting 144 priority species. This includes arable cultivated margins as habitats for rare species. The audit also highlighted the strong need to understand the best techniques and regimes to fully support these species – hence why further practical works are required in the Brecks (Dolman et al 2011). Therefore a range of different disturbance treatments in the Brecks will benefit these characteristic Brecks species – increasing populations of plants, invertebrates and birds through varied habitat management and mosaic creation. 40% of the Brecks NCA is under nationally important SSSI designation, with the majority of these sites notified as European sites – SPA and SAC, for their importance at that wider scale. The BBA demonstrated there is a need to develop and steer SSSI and agricultural management to maintain these important sites in favourable condition. Dispersal of plant material to maintain populations can be encouraged through increased site connectivity and could also be aided by roadside nature reserves. Inclusion of Forestry Commission land will benefit the 50%+ of priority heathland carabid beetles and plants which occur in Breckland forest rides and early stage plantations (Dolman et al 2011). A number of the sites in this project are publically accessible and/or utilised for public engagement, which will increase public awareness of the role of bare ground in the Brecks and also provide an opportunity to learn about the characteristic flora and fauna associated with it. Volunteering opportunities will provide long term engagement. Monitoring will provide the scientific Appendices 5 community, conservation and land management professionals with increased understanding of different ground disturbance treatments. Involvement of land owners in an agricultural context will increase understanding of how arable land can contribute to biodiversity conservation in the Brecks and support optimal agri-environmental management and delivery. Involvement in educational strands of the wider BNG project could encourage schools and other interest groups to undertake disturbance work and monitoring in their own back yards, further highlighting techniques to increase local biodiversity. Various partners have been involved in habitat management and disturbance projects across the project area and beyond. These working relationships can be enhanced and expanded through this project, including through voluntary input and increased skills provision. Many partners from the Brecks Biodiversity Audit have come together to undertake this Ground Disturbance project, which means that some of the actions identified as being so important can be driven forward and further progress made. A more joined up approach will be beneficial, experimenting with different techniques, with increased monitoring, coordinating information and sharing best practice among land owners, managers and the wider community. A strategic and coordinated approach will provide a pool of evidence and guidance for future management to optimise the biodiversity value of the Brecks, whilst sustaining the historic value of this landscape and adapting to challenges brought about by climate change and demands for food and fibre. Detailed Project Description Historic Environment Proposed four main strands to historic environment work: Historic Environment input to the sites where ground disturbance will take place. Each one will probably involve 2 days of Norfolk County Council Historic Environment Service (NCCHES) or Suffolk County Council Archaeology Service (SCCAS) time (desk-based assessment, field visit, briefs, advice etc). Both departments are willing to offer two days per site as an in-kind contribution. Archaeological contractors’ work has been included as an overall project budget of £10,000. Historic Environment input into the proposed best practice document Historic Environment input into best practice events, such as conferences, walks and the Heath Practitioners Forum. Appendices 6 A Historic Environment Opportunities Map, providing a strategic historic environment overview for all sites likely to be subject to bare ground disturbance. The following project outline covers this element. Historic Environment Opportunity Map Project Outline The Breckland Biodiversity Audit confirmed the need for ground disturbance works to be carried out across the Brecks on a regular basis. It also suggested that ‘archaeological interests need to be resolved without requiring a separate impact assessment for each operation and site’ (Dolman, Panter and Mossman 2010, 122–125, 152–154 and 188–189). Natural England and the Forestry Commission have raised the need for a strategic approach in discussions with Norfolk County Council’s Historic Environment Service on a number of occasions. This sub-project