Wild Chalk Project BRIEF FOR: Species Assemblages Dossiers 1.Background Information Chilterns Conservation Board and the Chilterns AONB The Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is a nationally protected landscape comprising a ridge of chalk hills stretching from Goring on Thames in South Oxfordshire to Hitchin in Hertfordshire, covering an area of 833km2. The Chilterns Conservation Board (CCB) is an independent statutory body established by Parliamentary Order in 2004. It has two statutory purposes: 1.To conserve and enhance the natural beauty of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). 2.To increase the understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities of the AONB. In fulfilling these purposes, the Board also has a duty to seek to foster the economic and social wellbeing of local communities within the AONB. Chalkscapes - North Chilterns Community Landscape Initiative Chalkscapes is a partnership community and conservation project bringing together diverse organisations and groups in the Northern Chilterns to work together to deliver the following aims: 1.To inspire communities in and around Luton and Dunstable to learn about, explore and love their local landscapes - strengthening communities through a sense of place. 2.To involve many more people, from diverse communities, in caring for local heritage - contributing to a sense of wellbeing and belonging through experience of natural and cultural heritage. 3.To forge strengthened partnerships across community and conservation interests, delivering mutual benefits for both. 4.To create more wildlife-rich, resilient chalk landscapes and habitats, securing enthusiasm and commitment from land managers to collaborate on landscape scale conservation strategies over the long term. 5. To develop, test and share learning and best practice from innovative approaches to chalk landscape management. 1 Need and opportunity The chalk hills surrounding the urban areas of Luton, Dunstable and Houghton Regis are home to rare and important wildlife and archaeology. Ancient trackways link urban areas to accessible countryside sites. These sites and access routes potentially provide a major recreational, cultural and health and well-being resource to local communities. The Chilterns as a whole is a landscape under pressure. However, it is in the north of the Chilterns that we find the most challenging combination of development pressure, disengaged communities and nationally important chalk landscapes, wildlife and habitats at risk. There is a real need and opportunity for many more people to get involved with initiatives to conserve and enhance what is left. Designation alone will not conserve what is special here. A sense of local pride in what makes this place special, how it came to be this way and why it matters today is crucial if we are to conserve this landscape for future generations. This specialist contract will inform a core element of the development of the Wild Chalk project – one of five projects within the Chalkscapes project. The Wild Chalk project will create bigger, more joined up, more diverse and better quality habitats to allow wildlife to flourish and move through the landscape. It will develop and test new methods for chalk habitat restoration and deliver large scale chalk habitat restoration projects - linking and expanding existing habitat, recreating microfeatures and restoring declining fauna and flora. To do this, we need to first find out what we currently have, where there are gaps and specify where the opportunities are. Figure 1: The Project (five) Focus Areas 2 Figure 2: Designated sites and historical hotspots for some of the declining plants and birds. 2. Project development The purpose of this Commission is to lead and undertake work which will inform the development of ‘Chalkscapes’, a Stage 2 (Delivery) bid to be submitted to the National Lottery Heritage Fund. 3. Scope and purpose of contracts SPECIES ‘ASSEMBLAGE’ DOSSIERS Five microhabitat assemblage/species guild dossiers will be produced for the five habitat sub- categories listed in Table 1. Each dossier will follow the proposed but not exclusive points below: • Identify the key nationally rare, scarce and threatened species (plant and animal) that occur within each microhabitat, alongside other local / county rarities. Local Biodiversity Recording and Monitoring Centre(s) to supply historical data for these species. • Provide new population data to Local Biodiversity Recording and Monitoring Centre(s) and national databases (e.g. the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland’s database). • Establish the current status of each species within the project area (number and size of populations), including possible survey work to establish current distribution. 3 • Work with Local Biodiversity Recording and Monitoring Centre to produce coincidence mapping to identify species hotspots. • Microhabitat/species guild management recommendations to identify management actions common to a wide range of rarer species within the habitat sub-category. • Site by site conservation management recommendations which will be used directly to inform the Site Dossiers (see separate Contract Brief for details of Site Dossiers and relationship with these key Species Dossiers.) • Species appendices that (i) provide an overview of the local and national distribution and status of all species contained within the dossiers; and (ii) additional species-specific conservation recommendations for species that might not fully benefit from generic microhabitat conservation management activities. There are over 50 rare and threatened plants and animals within the project area – see Table 2. There is a requirement to identify commonalities in management required for groups of these species, rather than tackling each species as an individual entity. The most cost effective management is best achieved by identifying targeted actions that deliver multiple benefits for a range of threatened plants and animals. For example, by exposing bare chalk in carefully chosen locations, it would be possible to ‘deliver’ naturally regenerating populations of juniper from seed, whilst additionally allowing plants such as horseshoe-vetch and kidney vetch to colonise, which are the food plants of rare and declining butterflies such as the Chalkhill Blue and Small Blue butterfly. This assemblage approach is best achieved by identifying the key microhabitats/species guilds that make up the wider chalk landscape as listed in Table 2 below, and then allocating each species to one or more category. For example, through the creation of exposed chalk elements within the wider downland landscape we can effectively mimicking the earthworks and sunkways created centuries ago. The final list will be agreed with the Chalkscapes contract manager. TABLE 1 . Key microhabitats/species guilds Species-rich ‘conservation’ arable (incl. margins) and fallow Short and skeletal chalk grassland Exposed chalk: scrapes, sunkways and banks Tall grassland and scrub edge Wood glades, rides and meadows The following list details key chalk specialists. These species are listed because they are chalk habitat specialists that either have an existing or historical range within the project area and this project provides opportunities to expand their populations in the North Chilterns. The final list of key chalk specialists will be agreed in consultation with the Chalkscapes contract manager but may include the following: TABLE 2. Scientific Name Common Name Taxa Chalk Habitat Lampyrisnoctiluca Glow worms Beetle Short grassland, long grassland/scrub edge Meloe spp. Oil Beetle Beetle Long grassland/scrub edge Emberiza calandra Corn Bunting Birds Downland, farmland Vanellusvanellus Lapwing Birds Downland, farmland 4 Alauda arvensis Skylark Birds Downland, farmland Burhinus oedicnemus Stone Curlew Birds Arable margin/early successional habitat Streptopelia turtur Turtle Dove Birds Downland including Scrub/grassland mosaic Emberiza citrinella Yellowhammer Birds Downland Scotopteryx bipunctaria Chalk Carpet Butterfly Grassland Polyommatus coridon Chalk Hill Blue Butterfly Short grassland Argynnis aglaja Dark Green Fritillary Butterfly Grassland/scrub edge Erynnis tages Dingy Skipper Butterfly Grassland/scrub edge Hamearis lucina Duke of Burgundy Butterfly Grassland/scrub edge Pyrgus malvae Grizzled Skipper Butterfly Grassland/scrub edge Cupido minimus Small Blue Butterfly Early successional habitat/grassland Clinopodium acinos Basil Thyme Flowering plant Arable margin/early successional habitat Valerianella rimosa Broad Fruited Corn-salad Flowering plant Arable margin/early successional habitat Orchis ustulata Burnt Tip orchid Flowering plant Short grassland Nepeta cataria Cat Mint Flowering plant Arable margin/early successional habitat Euprasia pseudokerneri Chalk Eyebright Flowering plant Short Grassland Filago vulgaris Common Cudweed Flowering plant Arable margin/early successional habitat Juniperus communis Common Juniper Flowering plant Downland Centaurea cyanus Cornflower Flowering plant Arable margin/early successional habitat Fumaria vaillantii Few Flowered Fumitory Flowering plant Arable margin/early successional habitat Tephroseris integrifolia Field Fleawort Flowering plant Short grassland Lithospermum arvense Field Gromwell Flowering plant Arable margin/early successional habitat Fumaria parviflora Fine Leaved Fumitory Flowering plant Arable margin/early successional habitat Carex pulicaris Flea Sedge Flowering plant Ancient wet flushes Ophrys insectifera