News
Lancashire is a leading light for Local Nature Partnerships
A proposed new partnership is aiming to deliver security for Lancashire’s unique environments,
landscapes and wildlife after receiving Government funding.
The Lancashire Wildlife Trust has successfully bid on behalf of Lancashire’s Environment Forum
for funding from DEFRA to engage and develop the partnership work.
Working with key partners in these austere times it will ensure consideration in decisionmaking
and that the widest possible benefits are protected and enhanced so that they continue
to be enjoyed into the future.
Our environment provides crucial services like clean water and pollination of crops, creating a
unique setting for investment or community development, all the way through to the wildlife
we know and love and gives visitors a glimpse of Lancashire’s powerful living landscapes.
The Lancashire bid is one of only 22 successful bids, putting it in the vanguard of work the
government has promoted through recent policy documents the Natural Environment White
Paper and Biodiversity: 2020.
DEFRA has recently shown that for every £1 spent on protected sites like SSSIs, the public get
£9 of benefits back in England, making them a great investment! The economic benefits to the
UK from priority conservation action, coming to £1.36bn a year, have also been investigated
by the government.
Organisations in Lancashire have been tackling the major issues for some time, and have a
great heritage for projects which deliver at the cutting edge of the natural environment. Two
projects in particular show exactly how far we have come in terms of conservation and the
natural environment delivering multiple benefits for society.
Brockholes presents an eye-catching and leading example of how wider issues can be
combined with wildlife. Not only is 106ha of wildlife habitat being restored right alongside the
M6, but is also a gateway into wider biodiversity sites across the region, a beacon for
sustainability and integrating environmental issues such as flood risk, and committed to
working on a programme of social inclusion and recreational facilities to widen participation
and understanding.
Elsewhere, United Utilities have led the way for managing uplands to deliver the clean water
we all expect, in fact they provide it for over 6.7 million people. The link between water quality
and restoring our uplands has led to the Sustainable Catchment Management Programme
(SCaMP) in Forest of Bowland and currently in the West Pennine Moors, two of Lancashire’s
most iconic landscapes.
The work to improve our clean water and reduce costly treatment has been possible through
the planting of over 1 million trees, covering 5km sq of bare peat, restoring 5,500ha of blanket
bog which is also storing our carbon, and has attracted additional capital grants of over £2
million.
John Wells, Chair of the Lancashire Environment Forum and UK Environment & Safety
Coordinator at ABInBev, the world’s largest brewing company, said “This is an excellent
opportunity to really understand the critical environmental issues we face in Lancashire, and
having identified them, we will support the best environmental options that deliver the
necessary results.
“We all have a responsibility to ensure that the impact of our activities has a minimum effect
upon the natural environment. The decisions we make today will be our legacy for generations
to come, and as such we must carefully manage our natural resources. We face significant
environmental challenges such as climate change, water shortages and increasing demands for
alternative energy sources and the Lancashire Environment Forum will continue to work hard
to ensure that the best environmental options are taken and that our natural environment
remains the incredible asset that it truly is.”
Anne Selby, Chief Executive of the Lancashire Wildlife Trust said: “Ultimately many aspects of
managing Lancashire’s unique environment benefits wildlife, people and importantly the
economy. The liaison around a Local Nature Partnership will allow Lancashire to really bring
together priorities to benefit all.”
Philip Austin, SCaMP Programme Manager at United Utilities, said “Our ground-breaking work
with SCaMP has allowed continued improvements for water customers while managing our
iconic uplands. Working with Local Nature Partnerships we will continue to innovate and deliver
water catchment projects that benefit our customers, and our tenants along with the wider
environment.”
More Information
Successful Lancashire Bid
Briefing Note on Engagement
Water Vole Project - Final Report
The culmination of three years work has set an evidence base for water vole conservation in the region. The project focused on survey, monitoring, volunteer training and survey, together with providing habitat advice and management plans. The full report and the executive summary can be found below.
NW Lowland Water Vole Project June 2011 - Full report (pdf 3mb)
NW Lowland Water Vole Project June 2011 - Executive Summary (pdf 0.4mb)
Delivering Biodiversity in Lancashire and Planning for 2011
With a change in funding operating from 1st April 2011, the new priorities and plan for the coming year can be seen in the summary document below.
Lancashire Biodiversity Partnership 2011 (280kb)
There is a fair amount of change on the horizon for biodiversity and the conservation of our natural heritage, with a Natural Environment White Paper and new England Biodiversity Strategy due to be published in March, all in the light of Making Space for Nature . In light of this the Partnership is concentrating on delivering priorities for conservation action, and maintaining the Partnership ready to adapt to any changes, as well as providing advice to anyone as these things evolve.
With this in mind, we also want to highlight all the great work which is ongoing in Lancashire, by a wealth of partners, and so have published a document linked to International Year of Biodiversity, trying to continue to push for leading conservation action in our unique landscapes across Lancashire.
The North West Brown Hare Project
The North West Brown Hare Project ,which has been funded by The SITA Trust, PTES and the Tree Council was launched on the 1st December 2010. The project aims to improve our understanding of the brown hare population and distribution within Greater Manchester, South Lancashire and North Merseyside. Highlighting isolated, fragmented populations to link up or expand populations into areas where they are absent, delivering landscape scale benefits to farmland biodiversity.
Our dedicated Brown Hare Project Officer, Samuel Bolton (based at GMEU) will conduct and coordinate surveys, using local volunteers, organise training sessions on brown hare ecology and survey techniques and analyse survey data using GIS and DISTANCE software. This information will be used to identify hotspots and potential sites to target landowner liaison and to develop landscape management strategies and the preparation of site-specific management plans. These strategies and plans will then be implemented at these selected sites through practical habitat management, aimed at conserving brown hare. It will also contribute to targets for a number of UK BAP priority habitats including, field margins, grasslands, hedgerows and lowland meadows.
The brown hare website will be updated in due course www.brownhare.org.uk.
Urban Event News
The notes of the successful Budgets, Buttercups and Biodiversity event are online. This event explored practical experience of implementing urban wildflower meadows in Telford (presentation by Chris Jones, Telford and Wrekin Council is available), and a workshop exploring the local authorities and community groups barriers to implementing meadow management in urban areas.
It is hoped to follow up work with a case study document which will be circulated in due course. For more information on this, or on the Urban Working Group then Contact Us.
Amphibian and Reptile Atlas: ARGSL Survey
The Amphibian and Reptile Group of South Lancashire (ARGSL) is collecting records for the first amphibian and reptile atlas for Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside. All records are valuable and will be gratefully received - whether you've seen frogspawn in your garden pond or a common lizard while out walking on the hills. The information we'd like people to contribute is:
- The name of the species that's been seen
- Where it's been seen (as accurately as possible- either a grid reference or an address in the case of garden records)
- The date the observation was made
- The name of the person who made the observation.
You can submit your records online via the online recording form at www.argsl.org.uk, or you can submit them by e-mail to David Orchard (chair of ARGSL) at argsl@btinternet.com .
An atlas recording leaflet and a garden pond survey form are available to download below - please distribute these to anyone you feel may be interested
Vice County 60 Plant News - April 2010
The latest news from VC 60 is available below with up to date information on extinct and rare plant species, together with other developments in the area.
Bird Atlas Survey newsletter - spring issue released
Atlas survey of breeding and wintering birds in Lancashire and North Merseyside, 2007 - 2011
East Lancashire Bat Group discover rare bat
A Lesser Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros), a cave dwelling bat thought to be found only in Wales and South West England, was discovered during a survey of hibernation sites in Bowland on 31st October 2008. Historic distribution of this bat included Lancashire and Yorkshire with the last known records dating back to the 1890's.On the same date this year the bat was again recorded on the same site indicating it is a resident species and work is now underway to discover if this is a remnant of the historic population or a attempt by the species to repopulate it's former range.
Follow our research at www.eastlancsbats.org
9th December 2009
North West Lowlands Water Vole Project Officer - £19,500 p.a. (full time + pension) Fixed term Contract until March 2011 (extension subject to funding)
This is an exciting opportunity to undertake survey and habitat enhancement works for Water Voles. The North West lowlands are a National stronghold for this endangered and declining mammal. The project aims to map distribution and co-ordinate conservation activity for key populations in South West Lancashire to the North Cheshire Plain. The successful candidates will have a proven track record in field based Water Vole conservation and data handling.
Closing Date: Tuesday 5th January 2010
Interviews: w/c 18th January 2010
For further details visit www.lancswt.org.uk/About Us/jobs.htm
7th December 2009
International Year of Biodiversity launched 25 November 2009, Natural History Museum, London
Hundreds of organisations and groups across the UK are joining together to play a part in the global awareness campaign, International Year of Biodiversity 2010 (IYB2010). From charities to farmers, councils to wildlife rangers, schools and colleges to zoos and museums and botanic gardens, the UK has one of the strongest programmes in the world to celebrate IYB2010.
Talks, public dialogues, art work, citizen science experiments and exhibitions encompassing both science and the arts are being planned between January and December 2010 under the banner of International Year of Biodiversity UK (IYB-UK). IYB-UK aims to help people discover the connections between themselves and the world around them and to realise the consequences of biodiversity loss, as well as the huge benefits that are shared if we conserve and use life on Earth in a sustainable way.
During IYB2010, the people of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will have an unprecedented opportunity to understand why biodiversity is important for our health and wealth, to enjoy it and learn how to preserve it. Opportunities include the chance to take part in surveys of farmland birds, butterflies, harvest mice, hedgehogs and water. There will be bat walks, bird watching, honey and apple sampling and orchard visits at blossom and harvest time. Summer highlights include pond dipping, insect trawling, bird box building and rambling. Hives will be introduced into the grounds of city churches and city squares will be transformed into gardens. Towns and cities will be going head-to-head, competing to map their local biodiversity. Hundreds of thousands of new plants and trees will be planted. New songs and music about bees will be commissioned and heard. A symbolic conference table and chairs, made from driftwood, will be built and shipped to Nagoya as a powerful call to action to the world's leaders as they hold the future of life on Earth in their hands.
It is hoped the partnership of key organisations in the UK and across the world will encourage people to understand the issues and learn about some of the success stories that indicate a way forward that can make a difference. IYB2010 gives people an opportunity to take time throughout 2010 and beyond to appreciate the natural world around them and join in the world-wide action on a local level.
For more information visit www.biodiversityislife.net
13th November 2009
Upland Vision and Value
Natural England have released a number of documents (free to download) setting out the vision for the future of the uplands and their value.
Vital Uplands -
sets out the vision for the long term future of the upland environment .
Economic Valuation of Upland Ecosystem Services -
may sound complicated but it sets out the value of numerous important services the uplands provide; including fresh water, climate regulation and health and well-being. It also examines the values and impacts of policy and management practices across various scales.
Mapping Values: the vital nature our uplands - an atlas linking environment and people” seeks to describe the benefits we get from the uplands, using mapping, and highlight how it can be secured into the future along with many of the key issues for the upland environment.
Delivering Nature’s Services is a leaflet explaining how Natural England’s partnership projects in 3 areas are case studies for how the vision for the uplands could work.
Exciting New Find for Lancashire
In early September, Jenny Elsworth found a patch of Touch-me-not Balsam in an area of woodland in north Lancashire and mentioned to her husband, Martin, that it would perhaps be worthwhile checking for Netted Carpet. Jenny and Martin visited the site and were successful in finding several larvae of what they believed to be that species. The following day they returned to the area with Brian Hancock for further searches. A few days later Graham Jones was shown the site and confirmed that the larvae were Netted Carpet.
A subsequent full survey of the site produced 30 larvae spread over several patches of the plant. The woodland had been visited several years previously, by several experienced recorders as part of a national search for this Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) species, with negative results. It seems possible that the wet weather over the last three summer has been good for the plant, which likes damp woodland, allowing the moth to build up its numbers from a much lower level. Early indications are that this moth has been present in the area for some long time.
This is the first ever record of this very rare moth in Lancashire, which has only otherwise been found in south Cumbria and a small area in Wales, and is an incredibly exciting discovery. It is hoped next year, subject to the approval of the landowner, to run an event giving moth recorders the opportunity to see the moth - more details will be made available next year if this becomes possible. An new Lancashire BAP is also in development for the species.
Information from Lancashire Moth Group at www.lancashiremoths.co.uk.
28th September 2009
SITA Trust funding announcement
SITA Trust are delighted to announce that we will be offering a new three-year Enriching Nature Programme that will run from 2010 - 2012.
The Trust has committed £8m in new funds to this programme. There will be three funding rounds per year in each of the years 2010, 2011 and 2012. Applicants may request up to £120,000 for an individual project.
We welcome applications to this funding programme from not-for-profit organisations with projects that focus on conserving a species or habitat identified as a priority in the UK BAP process. As a previous applicant to SITA Trust's Enriching Nature programme, we wanted to let you know of the new funds available.
Previous successful applicants to SITA Trust's funding programmes can apply for new project sites. To apply for a site which has previously been funded an applicant must wait three years from the date that any funding agreement was signed. If this affects you and you wish to know the date of any previous funding agreement, please call our team on 01454 262910.
Applications to the new fund must be made online using our new online application system. Once you've registered on this system you can revisit your form as often as you wish before submitting it to the Trust for consideration. We will not see the form until you submit it to us.
For more information on the programme including deadline dates and an application guide visit www.sitatrust.org.uk/nature-funding
2nd September 2009
Eel and Elver Pass on Bezza Brook
Work by the Ribble Catchment Conservation Trust has created an eel and elver pass on Bezza Brook, at Balderstone. The scheme was funded by the Environment Agency plus the RCCT input and was carried out by the Trust and their contractor Messrs. Bailey Developments Ltd of Clitheroe, with the kind permission of the landowners, Trustees of the Booth Charities. Though the main results will be seen in 2010, they have already found their first elver!
