Land management and biodiversity

The AONB Staff Unit's main opportunities for directly supporting land management and biodiversity are currently through our major projects - Peatscapes, Hay Time and Living North Pennines.  

Each has a range of external funders including Heritage Lottery Fund, Biffaward, CDENT, Natural England, SITA, Esmee Fairburn Trust, the Environment Agency and Northumbrian Water. We are grateful to all of these organisations, some of whom have not just provided funding but have also been active partners and participants in our work.

Highlights:

• We blocked 335km of moorland grips and restored 1400 hectares of blanket bog
• Regional land management contracting businesses carried out more than £900,000 of work on our behalf
• 186 hay meadows were surveyed and 23 Farming Environment Plans completed
• We have created 70 hectares of new native woodland

Some of our achievements this year:

Hay meadows:

• We surveyed 186 meadows covering 560 hectares
• 11 volunteer botanists surveyed 11 meadows
• We gave bespoke hay meadow management advice to 34 farmers
• Seed was spread on more than 45 hectares of meadows that we are restoring or enhancing
• All harvesting and spreading  operations were funded through agri-environment schemes
• We had a 90% success rate for the 'plug' plants our volunteers grew and transplanted out to meadows in 2009

Farm Environment Plans:

• We carried out surveys of 23 farms and developed Farm Environment Plans (FEPs) covering 3,668 hectares of farmland in Teesdale, Lunedale and Baldersdale
• We carried out a management plan for the control of bracken on six fells and allotments in the Middle End/Hudeshope area (Teesdale)

Peatscapes:

• We are restoring our first eroding peat site in the North Pennines at Flow Moss, a seven hectare bare peat area above Allendale in Northumberland
• We are supporting and managing six peatland research projects at the Universities of Durham, Leeds, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Nottingham Trent
• We are leading on the National Peat and Carbon Survey - funding has been secured and the project is underway
• We co-hosted the IUCN UK's Peatlands conference in Durham - 250 people attended
• We co-hosted a moorland managers' seminar attended by 40 landowners, and with Yorkshire Peat Partnership and Moors For The Future we hosted a moorland contractor development day
• Advice was given to 40 farmers, landowners and gamekeepers on peatland management
• Long term vegetation monitoring plots have been set up on seven peatland sites

Woods and water voles:

• We have further developed our partnership with Defence Estates at Warcop where 42 hectares of new woodland were created this year
• We have an agreement in place with the Forestry Commission to survey local woods and carry out Woodland Management Plans on behalf of their owners
• 90 new records for water voles this year including the first records in the Derwent and Devil's Water catchments
• Five new ponds created at Carricks, Derwent Reservoir as part of a larger habitat restoration
• Dormouse management plans and water vole survey reports written for farms on behalf of Natural England

WildWatch North Pennines:

• Funding was secured from the Heritage Lottery Fund for the development stage of our new project, WildWatch North Pennines. WildWatch will provide training events and greatly increase public participation in biodiversity survey and conservation work over three years
• If the Stage 2 bid is successful we will start the project in January 2012