Managing Parkland with Environmental Stewardship

Managing Parkland with Environmental Stewardship

Agenda • Natural England • Parkland and wildlife • Introduction to Environmental Stewardship (ES) • How Parkland fits into the objectives of ES • Demonstrate what can be achieved in Parklands through ES

Natural England • Government’s adviser on the natural environment • Provide practical advice on how best to safeguard England’s natural assets for the benefit of everyone

Natural England • Remit to ensure sustainable stewardship of the land and sea so that people and nature can thrive • Responsibility to see that England’s rich natural environment can adapt and survive intact for future generations to enjoy

UK Biodiversity Action Plan(UK BAP) • Published in 1994 • UK Government’s response to signing the Convention on Biological Diversity at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit • Set out a programme for conserving the UK’s biodiversity • Led to the production of action plans to help many of the UK’s threatened species and habitats to recover

UK BAP - 2007 • Statutory conservation bodies are the main delivery agents for those action plans • 1150 species and 65 habitats that meet the BAP criteria at a UK level • Lowland wood pasture and parkland is one of these BAP habitats

Lowland wood pasture and parkland • Products of historic land management systems • Represent a vegetation structure rather than being a particular plant community • Typically consists of large, open-grown or high forest trees (often pollards) at varies densities, in a matrix of grazed grassland, heathland and/or woodland floras

Lowland wood pasture and parkland BAP Habitat Included in the habitat definition are: • LW-P & P derived from medieval forests and emparkments, wooded commons, 16th to 19th century parks • 19th century parkland and later where they contain much older trees derived from earlier landscape

Lowland wood pasture and parkland BAP Habitat • Under or un-managed areas with veteran trees in a matrix of secondary woodland or scrub • Where veteran trees exist but the land use is not pasture – arable, forestry, amenity land

Lowland wood pasture and parkland BAP Habitat • These areas are outstanding at a European level • Sites are frequently of national historic, cultural and landscape importance

Lowland wood pasture and parkland BAP Habitat • Most common in southern Britain • Important because of: • Number and continuity of ancient (veteran) trees • Associated distinctive saproxylic (wood eating) fauna (invertebrates – beetles/insects) • Epiphytic flora (lichens, mosses, liverworts & fungi) • Bats, birds and may preserve indigenous tree genotypes

Lowland wood pasture and parkland BAP Habitat Objectives and proposed targets: • Protect and maintain the current extent (10-20,000 ha) in favourable ecological condition • Initiate a programme to restore 2,500 ha of derelict to favourable ecological condition by 2010 • By 2002 initiate expansion of 500 ha in appropriate areas to help reverse fragmentation and reduce the generation gap between veteran trees

Lowland wood pasture and parkland Habitat AP • The key components: • Veteran Trees • Mosaic of grazed pastures or heathland • Secondary components: • Standing water • Rivers and streams

What is an Ancient Tree ? • A tree that has passed beyond maturity and is old in comparison with other trees of same species • Crown growing downwards • Very wide trunk

What is an Ancient Tree ? • Hollow trunk • Stag-headedness • Fungi • Cavities (where branches broken) • Rough bark • ‘Old’ look • Aerial roots

What is an Ancient Tree ? • girth measurements (at 1.5 m high) as a guide • Sycamore, lime, chestnuts, elm, poplar, beech, crack willow ~4.5m • Oak, ash, Scots pine, alder ~3m • Hornbeam, holly, field maple, rowan, yew, grey and goat willow, cherry ~2.5m • Birch ~1.5m • Hawthorn ~90cm

Ancient or Veteran Tree ? All ancient trees are veteran trees, but not all veterans are ancient A veteran tree has developed some of the features found on ancient trees, not necessarily as a consequence of time, but of its life or environment Veteran features provide wildlife habitats

Veteran/Ancient tree habitats • A veteran/ancient tree provides habitats for a wide range of plants and animals • Invertebrates • Fungi • Mosses, lichens, liverworts and ferns • Reptiles and amphibians • Mammals and birds

Invertebrates habitat requirements • Major deadwood , sunbaked - Longhorn beetle • Upper crown limb, small cavities – bird, bats roost and hornets nest • Crown limb, large cavities – stiletto flies, click beetle, darkling beetle, barn owl roost • Fungal growth on limb – wood awl flies, false ladybirds • Snag/stub – large surface area for egg laying • Bark with fungal infection – cardinal beetles • Suspended broken limb – large surface area for eggs • Weak fork with included bark – nest for mammels and micromoths • Water-filled rot hole – hoverflies and water beetles • Sap on bark – sap beetles, fungas gnats • Scar tissue on old wound – bark beetle, false scorpions and spiders • Bracket fungi – shining fungus beetles • Delamination of wood – beetles • Lightning strike – flat bugs, false weevil and smoke flies • 18. Basal cavity – lesser stag beetle and crane flies • 19. Rot hole in trunk – rhinoceros beetle and crane flies

Fungi habitat requirements • No fertilisers • Low levels of disturbance around the base • Light grazing can encourage numbers • Avoid disturbing leaf litter as it suppresses inappropriate fungal species • Clear excessive ivy growth which can smother some species

Moss and lichen habitat requirements • Low pollution • Varying levels of light • Sheltered areas • Relatively high humidity levels (water source) • An undisturbed environment (some lichens especially take an exceptionally long time to colonise a site) • All the niche microenvironments a veteran tree affords

Moss and lichen habitat requirements • Best trees for moss are oak, ash, field maple and beech • Lichens can also be found on rock formations

Factors affecting lowland wood pasture and parkland • Lack of younger generations of trees • Breaks in continuity of dead wood habitat, loss of dependent species • Neglect/loss traditional tree management techniques (e.g. Pollarding) leading to tree collapse or felling • Loss of veteran trees through disease or other stress

Factors affecting lowland wood pasture and parkland • Removal of veteran trees and dead wood due to safety and tidiness • Damage to trees and roots from soil compaction and erosion by livestock • Changes in ground-water levels leading to water stress • Isolation and fragmentation of remaining sites

Key Management Messages

Lowland wood pasture and parkland Habitat AP • Some of the individual habitat components are also BAP habitats in their own right • Woodlands • Grasslands/heathlands • Open standing water (canals and ponds) and rivers and streams

Species Rich Grassland • Defined (in the FEP process) as containing two of the following • Less than 10% rye grass and clover • Holds more than 15 species per m2 • More than 30% sedges or wild flowers (excluding clover and buttercup)

Factors that support species rich grassland • It is permanent grassland and has been for some considerable time as it takes time for the species to develop • The soil has a low nutrient status as high soil fertility favours dominant grasses • Grazing or cutting is regularly undertaken to prevent invasive species such as taller grasses

Key Management Messages • Light grazing in spring and summer or • Managed hay cutting in late July and then again in September • Cuttings should be turned in the field and then removed so as not to smother new growth

Factors affecting species rich grassland • Pasture loss through conversion to arable and other land uses • Pasture improvement – reseeding, deep ploughing, fertilizers, pesticides • Inappropriate grazing levels • Undergrazing: loss of habitat structure through scrub invasion • Overgrazing: bark browsing, soil compaction, loss nectar plants

Woodlands • Defined (in the FEP process) as ‘vegetation dominated by trees more than 5m high when mature, which forms a distinct canopy’ • Ancient woodland is a site that has been managed as woodland continuously since accurate mapping began in 1600’s

Woodlands • Indicator species and features for ancient woodland are: • Sinuous boundaries • Internal and external ditches or boundary banks • Ancient trees • Bluebells, dog’s mercury, tutsan, primrose, wood sorrel, wood speedwell, wood anemone, yellow pimpernel, sweet woodruff • Archaeology of past woodland management

Ancient Woodland

Ancient Woodland • In the past almost all woodland was coppiced – where wood is harvested every 5-20 years

Wildlife potential of coppiced woodland • Provides habitat for: • Nightingale and green warbler and other birds • Certain bees and wasps • Leaf beetles, weevils, jumping spiders • Wood ants and leaf mining hoverfly • Woodland supports more species of butterfly and moth than any other UK habitat • Bats, wood mice, common shrews and voles Heath Fritillary Butterfly Zebra jumping spider from Essex

Key Management Messages • Coppicing and traditional management techniques should be re-introduced into woodland where possible • Coppicing can also be an effective management technique for archaeological sites in addition to limited removals

Key Management Messages • Many of the species in decline are those reliant on the more open habitat provided in the first few years after coppicing, therefore the length of cycle of coppice should be defined by these species where appropriate • To achieve optimum habitat a mosaic of coppiced units at different stages should be managed

Standing water habitats • The FEP has three basic definitions of water habitats • Eutrophic waters (mainly in the SE and East) • Mesotrophic waters (Northern England) • Ponds

Ponds • Ponds of high habitat value are defined in the FEP process as: • Supporting high value species such as great crested newt • Contain significant collection of 15 or more aquatic species, emergent plants or collections of dragonflies • Are of good water quality and contain some standard species A rare dragonfly the Norfolk Hawker Great crested newt

Wildlife potential for standing water habitats • Bottom dwelling invertebrates such as snails, water beetles, dragonflies and in some sites freshwater crayfish • Fish such as roach, tench and pike • Fennel leaved pondweed, spiked milfoil, yellow water lily and reedswamp. river weed water plaintain is rare • Amphibians such as the great crested newt • Many water based birds

Factors affecting standing water • Lakes change naturally over time silting with organic material which suppresses the fertility of the water. Therefore occasional de-silting is advisable • Nutrient enrichment from surrounding farming methods – using fertilisers of changing ground cover can cause the decline of useful species and an increase in invasives • Public access and recreational use disturbs the habitat, can trample shoreline vegetation and stir up sediment

Factors affecting standing water • Fishing and the introduction of none natives such as carp leads to the loss of natural fish and affects plant life and invertebrates • Introduction of non-native plants and animals such as the signal crayfish that has impacted on the levels of vegetation and introduce the plague to native crayfish

Key Management Messages • Manage public access to sites and site recreation including fishing • Maintain water levels • Be aware of surrounding land management and provide mitigation against over enrichment in any water management schemes • Occasionally desilt

Environmental Stewardship • An agri-environment scheme open to farmers and other land managers in England who deliver effective environmental management on their land

Environmental Stewardship • Farmers and land managers are provided with a financial incentive that supports and rewards them for looking after our: • wildlife • landscapes • historic features • natural resources (soils and water)

Environmental Stewardship • Natural England (NE) manages Environmental Stewardship (ES) on behalf of Defra • Land entered into the ES must be registered on the Rural Land Registry and must be part of the farmed environment

Environmental Stewardship ES has three elements: • Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) –basic level management options. Promotes good stewardship of the countryside through simple and effective land management • Organic ELS (OELS) – as above for organic operatives • Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) – more complex types of management and capital items are available

Historic Parkland and HLS • Important historic landscape feature • Important areas of permanent pasture especially where they are “islands” in arable landscapes • Preserve archaeological features, sometimes at the landscape scale

HLS and parkland plans • HLS can fund the preparation of a management plan for the site which would include a wildlife survey, tree survey and archaeology/historic asset survey and would address each of the threats to any specific feature • Management options can then be applied to maintain habitats/features • A special project could then be funded to resolve any highlighted threats

Managing Parkland with Environmental Stewardship