Culm Grasslands Proof of Concept Phase 1 Developing an understanding of the hydrology, water quality and soil resources of unimproved grasslands August 2014 Alan Puttock and Richard Brazier Research project led by the University of Exeter and Devon Wildlife Trust. This project has been supported by the Environment Agency, the Higher Education Innovation Fund and the Northern Devon Nature Improvement Area programme, supported by Defra, DCLG, Environment Agency, Forestry Commission and Natural England. Cover picture: A typical Culm grassland landscape with grazing cattle © Devon Wildlife Trust. Principal investigator: Professor Richard Brazier (
[email protected]). Executive summary Overview The lowlands of the UK’s western regions were once characterised by florally-rich, unimproved grasslands known in Devon and Cornwall as Culm grasslands, and more widely as Rhôs pasture. As recently as the 1950s they covered 40,000 ha of the South West. Due to the intensification of agriculture only 10 per cent of these grasslands survive. They are the definition of a fragmented ecosystem. Yet, these landscapes have the potential to store significant amounts of water as they are not drained, unlike their intensively-managed counterparts; they yield high water quality as they are not exposed to fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides; they store soil carbon as they are not tilled or limed to improve productivity; they support one of the ten most endangered species in the EU – The Marsh Fritillary butterfly. Despite these multiple benefits, they were forgotten, too wet to farm for high yields and offering little financial incentive to manage. In part this was due to the lack of knowledge of what Culm grasslands could provide and how they could mitigate the effects of land use and climate change upon flooding, soil erosion and diffuse pollution.