Guidance

Cheviots (NCA004): Countryside Stewardship statement of priorities

Updated 11 May 2021

Applies to England

Choosing priorities

Countryside Stewardship is a competitive scheme and funding is limited. Not all eligible applicants will be offered a grant. This guide will help applicants choose the options that will increase their chance of success.

Countryside Stewardship applications are scored. Both top priorities and other priorities score points. Applicants should select at least one top priority. Choosing other priorities will improve an application’s score.

Biodiversity: top priorities

Priority habitats

Applicants should choose land management options and capital works that maintain, restore and create priority habitats and support priority species that depend on these habitats.

Priority habitats to be maintained include:

• blanket bog
• upland hay meadows
• upland heathland
• upland calcareous grassland (including species rich andesite grassland and grassland on Cheviot granite)
• upland flushes, fens and swamps
• ancient and native woodland
• wood pasture and parkland with veteran trees
• riparian habitats associated with priority rivers and lakes

Priority habitats (especially projects to enlarge existing sites or help join up habitat networks) to be restored include:

• blanket bog
• upland hay meadows
• upland heathland
• upland calcareous grassland (including species-rich andesite grassland and grassland on Cheviot granite)
• upland flushes, fens and swamps
• ancient and native woodland
• wood pasture and parkland with veteran trees
• riparian habitats associated with priority rivers and lakes

Priority habitat creation to extend or link priority habitat to increase connectivity and reduce fragmentation. In particular, create priority habitat that will also contribute significantly to improvements in:

• water quality
• air quality
• flood and coastal risk management

Sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs)

Restore or maintain SSSIs that include features eligible for options – this includes options that will reduce diffuse water and air pollution effects.

Priority species

Managing priority habitats will create the habitat needs for many of the priority species associated with this area. In particular, by providing such essential elements as bare ground, areas of scrub and varied sward structures, which will help these species thrive.

This area also has a number of priority species that need tailored management and advice. Applicants should choose land management options and capital works that meet the specific needs of the following priority species:

• black grouse
• lapwing
• red squirrel
• juniper

Breeding wader assemblage

Parts of this area are targeted for their variety of breeding waders. Natural England has assessed the area as being nationally significant where one or more of the following species occur:

• lapwing
• redshank
• curlew
• snipe

In these areas, applicants should choose land management options and capital works that maintain or enhance conditions for breeding waders.

Woodland bird assemblage

Parts of this area are targeted for their variety of woodland birds. Natural England has assessed the area as being nationally significant where 4 or more of the following species occur:

• lesser spotted woodpecker
• tree pipit
• redstart
• pied flycatcher
• spotted flycatcher
• wood warbler
• marsh tit
• lesser redpoll
• hawfinch

In these areas, applicants should choose land management options and capital works that maintain or enhance conditions for woodland birds.

Water: top priorities

Water quality

Applicants should consider options and capital works in the water quality options table that address:

• sediment in the Aln and Till catchments
• phosphate in the Till catchment
• faecal bacteria in the Till catchment in order to improve the bathing water at Spittal
• phosphates, nitrates and sediment in the Tweed SSSI

These options help improve water quality by controlling the source or the movement of potential pollutants, including:

• sediment from soil erosion and runoff
• nutrients from fertilisers, manures and organic materials
• faecal indicator organisms from manures and slurries

Flood and coastal risk management

An application will have a greater chance of success if applicants select options for flood and coastal risk issues in these priority areas:

• upstream on the Breamish catchment to provide potential benefit to Powburn
• Wooler Water and Till and Breamish to provide potential benefit to Wooler by reducing flood flows

Applicants should choose options from the flood risk table that:

• reduce the amount and rate of surface water runoff
• reduce soil erosion
• slow the movement of floodwaters on floodplains

Historic environment: top priorities

Applicants should choose active management which ensures the long-term survival of historic environment features and protects them against damage and decay. In particular, some of the biggest land management threats in this area are from:

• scrub and tree growth
• erosion from livestock
• drainage

The following features are a high priority for active management in this area:

• designated features – archaeological features of national significance (scheduled monuments) and registered battlefields
• designated and undesignated traditional farm buildings and non-domestic historic buildings on holdings
• undesignated historic and archaeological features of high significance which are part of the Selected Heritage Inventory for Natural England (SHINE)

Applicants should consider options and capital works to:

• revert archaeological sites under cultivation to permanent grass
• reduce damaging cultivation and harvesting practices through minimum tillage or direct drilling where this provides a suitable level of protection
• remove scrub and bracken from archaeological or historic features
• maintain below-ground archaeology under permanent uncultivated vegetation or actively manage earthworks, standing stones and structures as visible above-ground features
• maintain and restore historic water management systems, including those associated with water meadows and designed water bodies
• restore historic buildings that are assessed as a priority in the area
• protect or enhance the condition of registered battlefields

Woodland: top priorities

Woodland management

Climate change, pests (such as deer and grey squirrels) and various diseases threaten woodland. Applicants’ proposals will need to address such threats where present.

Certain types of woodland are a high priority for bringing into management, including:

• protected woodland – those designated for their national biodiversity value
• priority woodland habitat – other unmanaged broadleaved woodland
• priority species – target woodland within priority areas for woodland priority species
• planted ancient woodland site (PAWS) restoration – conversion of conifer plantations on ancient woodland sites to broadleaf woodland within priority woodland habitat networks
• United Kingdom Forestry Standard – unmanaged conifer woodland within catchments subject to eutrophication and acidification, both to reduce pressures on the water environment and improve biodiversity

All management should comply with the United Kingdom Forestry Standard and other relevant guidance such as Managing ancient and native woodland in England.

Woodland planting

High priority objectives for new woodland planting include:

• biodiversity – planting to buffer and link existing woodlands and other semi-natural open habitats within priority woodland habitat networks
• water quality – planting designed to reduce and intercept diffuse pollution from agriculture
• flood risk – planting designed to increase infiltration of heavy rain into the ground, reduce erosion, or slow the flow of floodwaters on floodplains

Landscape: top priorities

Each application is likely to include a range of landscape features whose restoration should form an important part of agreements. Top priority in the area is the maintenance and restoration of features that will enhance the pattern and scale of the landscape and add to the area’s ‘sense of place’.

Top priorities in this area for landscape are:

• stone walls
• hedgerows
• stone faced banks
• in-field trees

Multiple environmental benefits

Applicants should look to provide for multiple priorities by selecting options that achieve multiple environmental benefits.

In this area, the greatest opportunity to achieve multiple objectives is by:

• establishing new wetland habitat within the Glen, Till and Breamish river catchments in locations where this will reduce soil erosion, intercept water flow, increase water storage capacity and benefit biodiversity, landscape character, water quality and flood risk management
• managing moorlands to restore the ecology of blanket bog, wet heath and upland mire habitats where this will benefit flood risk, carbon storage, water quality, biodiversity, drinking water resources and historic features
• enhancing existing woodlands and expanding woodland cover in locations where well managed woodland can benefit landscape character, biodiversity, water quality and flood risk, in addition to wider climate change, economic and social benefits – key locations include the upper reaches of the Glen, Brandon and Coquet river catchments

Other priorities

Applicants should select at least one of the top priorities. However, applicants can also select other priorities, as this will increase the score of the application.

Water quality

Applicants should consider options and capital works in the water quality options table that address phosphate, nitrate and sediment affecting a protected aquatic species in the Rede catchment.

Historic environment

The following historic environment features are lower priorities:

• undesignated SHINE features of medium and low significance
• priority undesignated historic parklands

Woodland management

Woodlands not included in the top priority categories are a lower priority for management but may still be supported.

Woodland planting

Areas are prioritised for new planting based on their potential to create biodiversity and water benefits.

Woodland planting schemes are scored depending on where the proposed scheme is in relation to the opportunity maps for woodland planting in England and how well the planting design will benefit biodiversity and water.

Other priorities for appropriately designed biodiversity schemes exist across the whole of England. Opportunities for new woodland planting for water only exist in certain parts of England.

Climate change

By choosing land management options and capital works which support the management of the vulnerable features and habitats listed in this statement, including where vulnerabilities are increased by climate change, applicants will support the resilience of biodiversity, water and other scheme priorities to the impacts of climate change, which is a cross-cutting objective of the scheme.