Guidance

Countryside Stewardship statement of priorities: Isle of Portland (NCA137)

Updated 13 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:

• maritime cliff and slope
• lowland calcareous grassland
• arable field margins

Priority habitats (especially projects to enlarge existing sites or help join up habitat networks) to be restored include lowland calcareous grassland.

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 (SSSI)

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:

• Lulworth skipper
• tall fescue planthopper
• Anaptychia ciliaris subsp. ciliaris (a lichen)
• Biatorella fossarum (a lichen)
• shepherd’s needle

The wild pollinator and farm wildlife package

This package is a collection of scheme options that benefit wild pollinators, farmland birds (such as grey partridge, tree sparrow and yellowhammer) and other farm wildlife (such as arable plants, great crested newt, bats and brown hare).

The package is voluntary, but an application will have a greater chance of success if options from the package are chosen.

The options provide the essential resources (especially year-round food, shelter and nesting places) that wild pollinators, birds and farm wildlife need to survive and reproduce. These include:

• sowing nectar flower mixes
• increasing flowers on grassland
• sowing winter bird food mixes
• managing hedgerows and other key farm habitats (like ponds and ditches)

Mid Tier

Applicants can choose from groups of options for different farm types – arable, mixed or pastoral. Typically, the options should be applied over a minimum of 3% to 5% of the farmed land on the holding.

Higher Tier

An application will have a greater chance of success if the holding has already helped wildlife thrive under previous schemes. For example, where a Higher Level Stewardship agreement is coming to an end, and from other areas where priority farmland species are present.

Applicants can choose from similar groups of options, tailored to their holding, in consultation with a Natural England adviser. Typically, the options will cover a minimum of 5% to 10% of farmed land to target a broader range of farmland species and habitats.

Applying the right combination of these options over at least 3% of the farmed land or a holding will bring benefits to farm wildlife.

Water: top priorities

Water quality

There are no nationally important water quality issues on the Isle of Portland, although there may be local issues.

Applicants can 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

Flood and coastal risk management

There are no fluvial flood risks present on Portland. Some locations on Portland may be susceptible to surface water flooding.

You should choose options from the flood risk table that reduce the amount and rate of surface water runoff.

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:

• lack of management
• scrub and tree 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
• 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 and enhance the condition of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site and maximises opportunities for its protection, enhancement and amenity value

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
• permanent grassland

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:

• incorporating wild bird seed options within arable farming systems and enhancing the extensive herb-rich grasslands to the south of Southwell, where these occur within historic field patterns of baulks (low earth banks) and strips, to benefit the historic landscape, rare arable plants, farmland birds and pollinating insects
• restoring, expanding and enhancing limestone grasslands, including previously quarried sites, in situations where this will increase habitat connectivity, benefiting mosses, lichens, many rare species of butterfly, moth and other insects, landscape character and wider biodiversity

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.

Historic environment

The following historic environment features are lower priorities:

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

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.