Community and Parish Guide to Biodiversity Berkshire Buckinghamshire Oxfordshire About this guidance Contents ABOUT THIS GUIDANCE About this guidance ................................................................................................. 2 In this guide there are handy Getting started ........................................................................................................... 3 sections on carrying out practical conservation work, sources of Step 1) Discover ......................................................................................................... 4 funding, training and advice, and Step 2) Protect ............................................................................................................ 8 examples what other Oxfordshire communities have achieved. Step 3) Manage ........................................................................................................10 There is a lot going on in Step 4) Create ...........................................................................................................11 Oxfordshire, so before you get Carrying out practical conservation work ......................................................12 started, do check if wildlife groups, environmental groups, or Funding sources.......................................................................................................13 volunteering parties are already set Help and advice .......................................................................................................14 up in your area – there may be like- minded people close to hand. What other people have done ............................................................................15 Published by BBOWT, Oxfordshire Useful website links and contacts .....................................................................18 County Council and TVERC 2012. Designed by www.lonelycottage.co.uk. Front cover images – kingfisher by Tony House, grass raking and scrub managment by GLOSSARY OF TERMS Wychwood Project, handling a barn owl by Ian Anderson. Back cover images – barn owl by Ed Austin/BSG Ecology, surveying wildlife by AONB Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Wychwood Project, meadow by BSG Ecology. BAP Biodiversity Action Plan BBOWT Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust CLP Community Led Plan CTA Conservation Target Area GIS Geographic Information System KWACS Kirtlington Wildlife and Conservation Society LGS Local Geological Site LNR Local Nature Reserve LWS Local Wildlife Site NERC Act Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act NPPF National Planning Policy Framework Witney College STEPS group managing scrub (Wychwood Project) ONCF Oxfordshire Nature Conservation Forum ORCC Oxfordshire Rural Community Council OWLS Oxfordshire Wildlife and Landscape Study OWP Oxfordshire Woodlands Project RSPB The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds SAC Special Area of Conservation SSSI Site of Special Scientific Interest TOE2 Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment TVERC Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre WCA Wildlife and Countryside Act WREN Waste Recycling Environmental Planting trees at Foxburrow Wood, Witney’s new community woodland (Wychwood Project) 2 Published by BBOWT, Oxfordshire County Council and TVERC Getting started What is biodiversity? Communities can provide vital help by appreciating, protecting and enhancing Biodiversity is all the life on earth, from biodiversity in their local area. animals and plants to bacteria and fungi. Biodiversity is anything and everything This guide will help you set up a local alive in our beautiful landscape of conservation group and involve the woodland, hedgerows, meadows, rivers local community, contribute to a Parish and lakes. You can find biodiversity in or Neighbourhood Plan, find sources of urban cities and rural villages, from help, information and funding so that red kites soaring over the Chilterns to you can ensure your efforts will result in a bumblebees on the village green. better local environment and contribute to Oxfordshire’s Biodiversity Action Plan. Why does biodiversity Snake’s-head fritillaries Getting started (Colin Williams) matter? Deciding where to start can be a OXFORDSHIRE’S BIODIVERSITY All life on earth has an intrinsic value daunting prospect, but if you follow ACTION PLAN (BAP) which we, as our planet’s dominant these steps, you’ll soon be well on your species, have a duty to protect. Although way to helping Oxfordshire’s biodiversity! Oxfordshire has a Biodiversity wildlife can exist without us, we cannot Action Plan (BAP) which has exist without wildlife, so by protecting The four steps to take are: identified where the best places wildlife we are improving life for 1) Discover what’s in your area in the county are for focusing our ourselves. A natural environment rich 2) Protect the most valuable areas efforts on protecting wildlife and in wildlife delivers numerous benefits 3) Manage areas to maintain and improving habitats. These places to Oxfordshire’s communities including enhance biodiversity are called Conservation Target improved health and wellbeing, higher 4) Create new habitat for wildlife Areas (CTAs). property values and flood prevention. This targeted approach helps How can I help? to concentrate the limited resources of the local authorities, One of the best Wildlife needs protecting and habitats government agencies and need managing all over Oxfordshire. ways to get started is to conservation organisations in find out about local groups Oxfordshire who have all agreed where you can meet like- to help implement the BAP. More minded people. information, including a map of the 36 CTAs is available on the Oxfordshire Nature Conservation Forum (ONCF) website. Conserving and enhancing biodiversity is important, wherever it is. The CTA approach does not imply that areas outside the boundaries have no biodiversity or that biodiversity there should Launch of a display of children’s work at the not be protected and enhanced. Trap Grounds (Friends of the Trap Grounds) Communities have the opportunity to positively influence their local area wherever they are. SETTING UP A LOCAL GROUP The Oxfordshire Wildlife and Landscape Study (OWLS) provides The Oxfordshire Nature Conservation Forum (ONCF) keeps information on landscape a record and contact details of all the local groups working character and biodiversity for the in Oxfordshire. Before you set up a new group, check out whole of Oxfordshire. OWLS can the ONCF website to find out about your nearest existing help people understand their local group. If there isn’t already a group in your area, you can landscape. The 24 landscape types set one up. can be viewed at county, district or parish level. Community and Parish Guide to Biodiversity 3 Step 1) Discover Discover what’s in your about Oxfordshire available for you to River Thames (Kerry Lock) research. area Aerial photographs You can find this out from aerial Aerial photographs (from GoogleEarth) photographs, information from Thames can give you an overview of the whole Valley Environmental Records Centre area and can be looked at without (TVERC) and by carrying out field surveys. getting muddy boots! Although do First, decide on the boundary of the area remember that things may have changed you’d like to look at; often this will be the on the ground since the photo was taken. parish boundary, which can be found on the Oxfordshire County Council website. Base Maps Ordnance Survey produce maps at What you’re looking for various scales which can be useful, and maps produced more than 50 years ago Some areas of our landscape are valuable are copyright free. The Bodleian Library for biodiversity because they include a in Oxford provides a copying service for large variety of habitats. Often the more old maps. ‘natural’ or ‘untidy’ an area looks, the better it may be for wildlife. You can access Ordnance Survey maps in paper format and on freely accessible How to find out what is computers at the Oxfordshire History Centre (OHS) in Cowley. The OHS also has already known or recorded large scale digital mapping from 1876– The following landscape features about your area 2011. Do check the copyright conditions are most valuable for wildlife: of any maps you use. Unimproved pasture (grassland Before you get out and about, it is used for grazing) often useful to find out what is known Multi-Agency Geographic Information Rough grassland/scrub/derelict or recorded about your area. There is a for the Countryside (MAGIC) can also be land wealth of environmental information used to map environmental information. Meadows Wetlands e.g. fens, marshes and reedbeds Woodlands (deciduous and ancient woodland) THAMES VALLEY Hedgerows and scrub ENVIRONMENTAL Native trees (especially old trees RECORDS CENTRE with holes and rotten branches) (TVERC) Rivers, streams and ditches Local Records Centres Lakes and ponds collect, collate and Older buildings manage data about the Allotments environment in a given area. Churchyards In Oxfordshire, the Thames Disused quarries Valley Environmental Railway embankments and Records Centre (TVERC) disused railway lines holds information on Old roads and green lanes sites, species and habitats. Traditional orchards TVERC can provide you with a map showing all the The following are less valuable environmental information (but everything has some value!) held for your area and Arable fields (used for growing whether it’s protected by law crops) or planning policy. Further