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Over £168,000 awarded to farming projects

We have been able to hit the ground running following the launch, this summer, of the new Farming in Protected Landscapes funding programme. Farmers and land managers in the Shropshire Hills AONB can apply for grants for one-off projects that demonstrate benefits to climate, nature, people and place.

Some interesting projects have emerged, and to date we have awarded grants to 13 projects, totalling over £168,000.  Applications are assessed by a panel made up of local farmers and land managers, alongside representatives of organisations with relevant interests and experience.  The projects that have received a grant vary in size and scope, although the minimum project needs to be at least £3,000 in value. 

One small grant has supported training to help the owners of a farm to transition to a system of Holistic Management, regenerating soil and increasing biodiversity, while improving profitability and learning how to use livestock to achieve environmental objectives. 

Another grant in the region of £20,000 is contributing to the purchase of a direct drill to improve the condition of soil across a farm, essential for the health and structure of the soil as well as being beneficial to invertebrates and earthworms, reducing soil erosion and improving carbon storage.

A similar sized grant is also supporting a Highland/Shorthorn Beef business to expand meat sales from cattle which graze a Local Wildlife Site.  The animals are left to forage on the heathland ground and rough pasture which maintains these habitats with various species moss, herbal grasses and wildflowers.  The grant is supporting interior alterations to a farm building to house a cold store, packing area and customer facing area.

A number of projects are based around restoring hedgerows, including coppicing, gapping up and laying as well as planting new hedges and small woodland areas.  Good hedges are valuable habitats holding a diversity of plants, providing food, shelter and habitat corridors for animals, as well as providing shelter for livestock and slowing water run-off and soil loss.  For good carbon storage and wildlife value, a hedges should be thick and large volume, avoiding hard annual cutting to the same height, and ideally should have hedgerow trees within it.  www.hedgelink.org.uk is a great source of guidance.

Project applications continue to be worked up with support from our Farming in Protected Landscapes Adviser Alison Jones and other members of our team. Applications submitted going forwards will need to be for funding in years two (2022/23) and three (2023/24) of the programme, with work starting from 1^st April 2022. No further grants are available for 2021/22. 

For more information, please visit our Farming in Protected Landscapes webpage.

Young Rangers, a year of outdoor activity

This project may have started online in lockdown, but the Young Rangers have more than made up for this with a series of practical conservation sessions in the spring, followed by a summer of outdoor adventure and an active autumn learning how to lay a hedge, helping with wildlife surveys and recording wildlife with camera traps.  To celebrate this first year, a Christmas Craft session, using natural materials, is coming up at Poles Coppice. Over the year the young rangers have grown in confidence, learning new skills, trying things a bit out of their comfort zone and generally having fun outdoors in the Shropshire Hills landscape. For more information about the project see our webpage or email Project Officer, Joe Penford, joe.penfold@shropshire.gov.uk

Healthy Soil, Healthy Farm, Healthy River

Over the last two years we have worked with Severn Rivers Trust to deliver the Springs of Rivers Teme, Onny, Clun Project.  Three advisers were employed by the Rivers Trust to engage with farmers in the Teme, Onny and Clun catchments to improve the water quality of the Teme Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and River Clun Special Area of Conservation (SAC).  

Most of the farms in the project area were some distance from the Teme SSSI and impacts on the local water environment can be under appreciated. 152 farms agreed to a confidential Feasibility Study, which included soil assessment and farm specific recommendations to improve the impacts of land management activities on the wider river catchment.   

The project has fostered positive relationships and delivered significant awareness raising across the catchment.  With farming in transition and the awareness of natural capital rising, we hope that the farmers we worked with are better placed to take up and implement activities set out in current and future farming funding schemes.

Improving the condition of the River Teme SSSI and River Clun SAC is long-term and ongoing priority, and this project has been an important step on the road to achieving this.  Click here to read the project summary.  Work continues in the Teme Catchment with the Woodlands for Water initiative to create 50 hectares of new native woodland annually between now and 2025.  For more information, please see the Severn Rivers Trust website.

Small grants for community conservation projects

The Conservation Fund is distributed by the Shropshire Hills AONB Trust and supports projects to deliver practical conservation work or involve people in activities relating to the conservation of the area.  Earlier this year, the Trust awarded over £11,000 to eight community projects which are helping to look after the Shropshire Hills landscape.

Projects supported this year include restoring village roadside verges to encourage wildflowers and create valuable wildlife corridors in the countryside, supporting volunteers to manage local woodland, and helping local Community Wildlife Groups to take action to conserve our local curlew population.

Projects have also enabled secondary school pupils to take part in practical conservation tasks, supported free places for younger children to join Forest School sessions and funded a pollinator planting project at a local care farm, involving participants in all aspects of the research, planning, planting and after care.

If you or your community group has a project in mind please get in touch. The Fund is open for applications for projects to start on or after 1^st April 2022.  Grants range from £500 to £2,000 and are generally awarded for activity within a particular Financial Year (April to the end of March).  Further information about the Fund and how to apply is on our website.

The Conservation Fund is made up with donations from Friends of Shropshire Hills subscriptions, the Millichope Foundation, the Garfield Weston Foundation, the Martin Wills Wildlife Maintenance Trust, PB Dumbell, Moonshine & Fuggles, and individual contributions. 

Stuck for gift ideas... a one-year gift subscription to Friends of the Shropshire Hills might be the perfect present?  Your donation goes directly into the Conservation Fund which supports projects like those in the photos above.  To purchase, you just need to fill in the gift application form and make a one-off payment of £25 by cheque or by direct payment to the AONB Trust. The gift pack will include a Christmas card which we can post or email direct to the recipient.  See our Friends webpage to download the gift application form or get in touch with us directly on 01743 254740.  Forms must be with us in Craven Arms office by 17 December at the latest.

Your online shopping can also help to support the Shropshire Hills AONB Trust activities through Easy Fundraising at https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/shropshirehillstrt/

Shuttle service eases visitor pressure this summer

The Shropshire Hills weekend Shuttle bus service has run in various guises for over 20 years.  At times, there has been a network of connecting routes allowing passengers to access and explore the length and breadth of the Shropshire Hills.  More recently, as funding became harder to find, the focus has been on keeping the most popular (and original) route going - the Long Mynd & Stiperstones Shuttle.  The buses start in Carding Mill Valley and Church Stretton, and travel over the Long Mynd and around the Stiperstones. 

This summer we trialled a shorter version of the Long Mynd & Stiperstones route, running the buses more frequently between visitor hot-spots of the Stiperstones National Nature Reserve, the Bog and Bridges. This helped to reduce some of the visitor pressure on the roads and car parks, making it easier to move around these locations without a car.

Despite the shorter route, the service remained popular and carried over 1203 passengers and 804 concessionary tickets between July and September (27 day season).  Funding came from Shropshire Council, Church Stretton Town Council and the National Trust.  Donations kindly received through our Shuttle Supporters Scheme and by other passengers also help to fund the service.

National Association for AONBs focuses on climate change

The NAAONB recently held its annual Chairs conference, and as with the summer conference and the Lead Officers’ meeting in the spring, gave special priority to the connected challenges of climate change and nature decline.  AONBs collectively cover around 15% of the land area of England & Wales, so while AONB organisations themselves are small, the potential contribution is significant.  

Our work on enhancing habitat networks and supporting sustainable (and increasingly regenerative and agro-ecological) farming is beneficial in terms of mitigating climate change and adapting to inevitable changes.  We have some role to influence planning, including on build development and transport, and we encourage sustainable tourism and responsible environmental behaviour by visitors. 

Renewable energy is an area where more work is needed to reduce the potential conflicts between expanding generating capacity and protecting our finest landscapes.  The national Glover Review of designated landscapes recommended, among other things, that the legal purposes of AONBs be updated to reflect better the challenges of the 21^st Century. 

We await eagerly the government’s expected response to the review and will continue to look at how we can do more on climate and nature.

The right tree in the right place - Shropshire Hills guidance

Tree planting is an important tool in fighting climate change and can be beneficial for wildlife but it’s essential this is done in the right way. When selecting a site for planting trees its important to consider the woodland type you wish to create, restore or buffer. This is especially important in the Shropshire Hills with its diverse topology and geology.  We have developed a webpage to provide some information about woodland types in the AONB, opportunities for new planting and suggested species. Shropshire Hills Tree Planting Advice webpage

National project with a local focus

Activities to help to conserve and enhance the heritage of commons and commoning are taking place on the Stiperstones, Long Mynd and Clee Liberty commons through Our Common Cause: Our Upland Commons. 

The project is working in three other protected landscapes: the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and Dartmoor. Here in the Shropshire Hills, a wide range of activities are being delivered under the project's four themes. 

Collaboration  The project has funded a shepherd to monitor the sheep on the Stiperstones to understand their movements and grazing patterns.  This knowledge will help to optimise grazing on the common next spring to enhance sheep welfare and health, but also to protect habitats and increase biodiversity.  The project has also bought a ‘shared’ mobile sheep handling system to allow routine operations like shearing and health checks to happen on the hill rather than moving the flock off.

Resilience  A series of webinars and knowledge sharing sessions for commoning farmers are underway to help them to prepare for the new Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes that are being phased in. For common land to thrive, and the commoning way of life to continue, supporting those that need it through this process is an important part of the project. 

Commons for All Talks, walks, resources and information for young and old are planned to raise awareness and a better understanding of commons and commoning. These include a commons themed John Muir Award, a multi-media project and storytelling.  Watch out as commons will also be heading to town next year!

Commons for Tomorrow The project is supporting people to help conserve and enhance the rich heritage of commons.  This year activities have included condition monitoring on the Stiperstones, erosion repair and an archaeological excavation of the ramparts of Nordy Bank hillfort on Clee Liberty, and a memory sharing and initial site survey to research and document the history of Pole Cottage on the Long Mynd.  Biodiversity projects have also been looking at birds, butterflies and moths with more opportunity for participation next year. To enhance habitat the project has supplied a number of bracken management machines for Clee Liberty and a remote controlled bracken crusher as a shared resource between Long Mynd and Clee Liberty.

Our Common Cause: Our Upland Commons.is funded by the National Heritage Lottery Fund and other funders. To find out more visit the Foundation for Common Land website, or email the Project Officer for the Shropshire Hills renee@foundationforcommonland.org.uk or telephone 07929 726337.

Shropshire Hills AONB is one of 46 AONBs in the UK. The AONB Partnership is hosted by Shropshire Council and funded also by Defra, Telford & Wrekin Council and project funders.

 Shropshire Hills AONB Partnership, Unit 9 Drovers House, 
The Auction Yard, CRAVEN ARMS, SY7 9BZ
01743 254740
www.shropshirehillsaonb.co.uk
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