Guidance

Countryside Stewardship statement of priorities: Cumbria High Fells (NCA008)

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:

• purple moor grass and rush pasture
• mountain heath and willow scrub
• blanket bog
• upland heathland
• upland flushes, fens and swamps
• upland species-rich hay meadows
• upland calcareous grassland
• ancient and native woodland
• floodplain grazing marsh and meadows
• lowland fens
• wood pasture and parkland with veteran trees
• riparian habitat associated with priority rivers and lakes

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

• ancient and native woodland
• upland heathland
• upland hay meadows and species rich grassland
• floodplain grazing marsh and meadows

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:

• marsh fritillary
• small pearl-bordered fritillary
• netted carpet moth
• juniper
• lapwing
• curlew
• willow tit
• black grouse
• red squirrel
• a freshwater aquatic species
• pyramidal bugle
• slender thread moss
• rugged collar moss
• northern yellow splinter

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:

• nitrate in the Ehen, Duddon, Irt, Annas, Crake, Kent, Leven, Ellen, Eamont, Petteril and Upper Lune catchments and Bassenthwaite Lake, Elter Water, Little Langdale Tarn, Mungrisedale Mires, Overwater and Stanley Ghyll SSSIs
• phosphate in the Cocker, Waver and Wampool, Ellen, Caldew, Ehen, Duddon, Irt, Annas, Crake, Kent, Leven, Eamont, Petteril and Upper Lune catchments and Bassenthwaite Lake, Elter Water, Little Langdale Tarn, Mungrisedale Mires, Overwater and Stanley Ghyll SSSIs
• sediment in the Ehen, Cocker, Waver and Wampool, Ellen, Caldew, Duddon, Irt, Annas, Crake, Kent, Leven, Eamont, Petteril and Upper Lune catchments and Bassenthwaite Lake, Elter Water, Little Langdale Tarn, Mungrisedale Mires, Overwater and Stanley Ghyll SSSIs
• faecal bacteria in the Ehen-Calder, Ellen, Duddon, Crake, Kent and Leven catchments impacting on Seascale, Allonby, Haverigg, Walney West Shore, Walney Sandy Gap and Walney Biggar Bank bathing waters and Morecambe Bay East and Morecambe Bay (Leven) shellfish waters
• pesticides and colour in the Derwent and Eamont catchments impacting on the Thirlmere, Blea Water and River Eden (lower)

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

• nutrients from fertilisers, manures and organic materials
• sediment from soil erosion and runoff
• faecal bacteria from both manures and livestock
• pesticides from their use and disposal

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 the priority areas of the:

• Braithwaite – Coledale Beck
• Caldbeck – Cald Beck, Whelpo Beck, Gill Beck
• Embleton – Tom Rudd Beck
• Keswick, Ambleside Road – flood storage area
• Keswick, Elliot Park – surface water
• Keswick, Penrith Road Twa Dogs Pub – surface water
• Lorton – River Cocker, Whit Beck and surface water
• Millhouse – River Caldew
• Portinscale – Pow Beck, Newlands Beck
• Ennerdale Bridge – River Ehen, Croasdale Beck
• Gosforth – ordinary watercourses
• Bomby and Bampton Grange – River Lowther
• Glenridding – Glenridding Beck
• Glenridding, Patterdale and Hartsop – Goldrill Beck, Glenridding Beck
• Newbiggin – groundwater and surface water
• Pooley Bridge – River Eamont
• Threlkeld – Gategill Beck, Kilnhow Beck
• Tirril – Lady Beck
• Bouth Village, Burneside Carling Steps, Burneside Steeles Row and Bridge Street – River Kent sections upstream of these communities that fall within this NCA area
• Ambleside – Stock Ghyll
• Ambleside, The Borrans – Fisher Beck, River Rothay
• Grasmere – River Rothay, Easedale Beck
• Low Lorton – Whit Beck

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:

• plant and scrub growth
• erosion from livestock

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

• designated features – archaeological features of national significance (scheduled monuments), registered parks and gardens 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
• maintain or restore registered parks and gardens, including structures or features that contribute to the original design intentions or feel of the parkland or provide for their biodiversity and amenity value

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:

• hedgerows
• hedgerow trees
• in-field trees
• stone walls

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:

• managing common land and the open fell to restore the ecology of blanket bog, wet heath and upland mire habitats, where this will benefit flood risk management, carbon storage, water quality, biodiversity, drinking water resources and historic features
• enhancing and expanding wetland habitats, including mires, fens, swamps, and lake shore transitional habitats within the wider Derwent, Cocker and Caldew catchments where this will benefit, landscape character, water quality, flood risk management, carbon storage and biodiversity
• establishing buffer strips, sediment traps and erosion control in the Derwent, Cocker, Leven and Kent catchments in situations where this will benefit water quality, biodiversity and flood risk management
• 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 ghylls, upland fringes, lake shores and valley bottoms within the Derwent, Cocker and Caldew 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 faecal bacteria in the Upper Lune catchment draining to Lune (Plover Scar) shellfish water.

These options help improve water quality by controlling the source or the movement of potential pollutants.

Historic environment

The following historic environment features are lower priorities:

• designated and undesignated traditional farm buildings
• undesignated SHINE features of medium and low significance
• priority undesignated historic parklands

Woodland management

Woodlands not included in the top priority categories listed above 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.