Welcome to our latest newsletter.

In this issue:

Six more shuttle bus days

Whittling for wellbeing

Lights, camera, action

Supporting access for all

Your feedback on Shropshire Great Outdoors website

Hilltops & headwaters 

Supporting farmer collaboration

Public surveys for Local Nature Recovery Strategies

National Landscapes Association Conference in Shropshire

Six more shuttle bus days!

As a result of the excellent response we’ve had from passengers and a very generous donation from the Little Stretton to Stiperstones time trial run/walk event, we now have enough funds to extend the Shuttle Bus service until the end of September. That’s three extra weekends.

The last running day will now be 29th September.

Re-launched this year with a new timetable and a more frequent service across the Long Mynd to Bridges, the Shuttle has had an excellent season. The weather has brought out local and visiting walkers and many others keen to explore or re-visit the central Shropshire Hills. 

The improved route now runs from Church Stretton to Bridges, Wentnor, The Bog, Stiperstones and Snailbeach returning via All Stretton, on Saturdays and Sundays from 9.15am until 5.35pm. It’s a perfect day out whether you're keen to explore on foot, or just go for one of the most scenic bus rides in the UK. A £6 Day Rover ticket allows passengers to stay on the bus for a tour or hop on and off during the day for a walk, tea and cake at the Bog Centre or lunch at one of our distinctive country pubs.

If you’ve used the bus, please champion the service to your friends, family and neighbours, post your pictures on Facebook and wherever else you share news of your days out. We welcome your continued support. But remember it’s a cash only service. We know how unusual that is these days, and would love to offer contactless payments, but regretfully the costs of setting up and maintaining the system are currently outside our reach.

The popularity of the service and bus capacity means that if you are keen on walking, it’s better to catch the bus on your outward journey and avoid trying to hop on at the end of the day when the bus might be full. For help planning a day out, contact us.

Full information about the bus and a downloadable timetable at www.shropshirehillsshuttles.co.uk

Whittling for wellbeing

Connection with nature is known to have significant health and wellbeing benefits.  This summer and autumn we are providing outdoor nature-based activities for disadvantaged young people and people recovering from mental ill health.

Our whittling workshops are designed to encourage the participants to spend time exploring the woodland and sourcing the materials they need from the woods to create their own handmade product, be it a whittled spoon, shrink pot, milking stool or rustic broom. 

Led by a green woodworking expert, the participants are guided through the process of making something with the materials they have gathered using hand tools. The workshops are about encouraging people to spend time outdoors in nature whilst learning a craft skill and producing something that they can keep.

We are working with health and social care organisations, green social prescribing and youth workers to promote the workshops. This project is funded by the UK Government through the Vibrant Shropshire: a Cultural Compact Grant Scheme as part of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. 

For more information please contact Joe Penfold, Engagement Ranger, email joe.penfold@shropshire.gov.uk

Lights, camera, action...

Pine Martens are England's rarest mammal and were thought to be extinct in Shropshire for over 100 years.  In 2015, the first confirmed sighting of pine marten was captured on camera in the Clun valley. Since then, other sightings have been confirmed around the Stiperstones and in woodland on Pontesford Hill.   

This year, the Shropshire Hills Conservation Fund is supporting 3 community projects, led by the Shropshire Mammal Group, to study the behaviour and distribution of pine martens in the Shropshire Hills. The projects are increasing the geographic spread of monitoring pine marten by empowering communities to get involved with camera trapping and den box surveys. The projects are also mapping habitats to identify where improvements and links are needed.   

In Wheathill Parish, following several unconfirmed sightings of pine marten, den boxes have been installed at carefully chosen places to encourage resting and breeding, with camera traps set up close by.  10+ volunteers from the parish have been trained to monitor the camera traps and data collected is being passed onto Vincent Wildlife Trust's Martens on the Move Project which is monitoring pine marten activity across England and Wales.

Over 20 camera traps are now in place across the National Landscape, with more being set up this month.  There hasn’t been too much pine marten activity recorded so far, which could be down to the long wet winter, but there has been lots of pine marten events including talks, training sessions and 2 school field trips to local woodlands.  

To keep up to date with project activity visit the Shropshire Pine Marten Project Facebook page.

The Conservation Fund (administered by the Shropshire Hills Landscape Trust) will open mid-September for the next rounds of funding. For more information on how the apply visit our website.

Supporting access for all in the Shropshire Hills

In June, we met up with members from Telford Sight Loss for an afternoon out along the Stiperstones All Ability Trail. The 500 metre trail is part of the Stiperstones National Nature Reserve. A member of the Natural England team, who manage the Reserve, also joined us to discussed some of the barriers to exploring in the Shropshire Hills and opportunities to work together to provide support and relevant information. The afternoon was topped off with tea and home-made cake in the Bog Visitor Centre. 

We continue to engage with special interest and community groups and have been able to support access improvements in the Shropshire Hills this year, with Defra's Access for All funding. 

Projects have included the provision of all-ability access in the Onny Meadows at the Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre in Craven Arms, at Nils Quarry in Pontesbury and at Glynn’s Garden CiC, which provides accessible horticultural activities in Church Stretton. Further access improvements and interpretation is planned this autumn in the Darnford Valley near Bridges.

Your feedback please

Over the next 6 months the Shropshire Great Outdoors website will be updated and redesigned. We would appreciate your feedback! Please take a look around the website and then follow this link to the survey: Website Survey Complete the survey before end of September for a chance to win £30 Amazon Voucher.

Hilltops & headwaters

The ‘soggy and boggy’ parts of our hilltops are often where streams begin. Headwaters is the term used to describe the starting point where water begins its flow, often linked to the natural groundwater levels and rainfall. These areas are naturally covered by heathland, wet flushes and peaty soils in some places. They are of great ecological value, supporting special wildlife such as curlew, snipe, sphagnum mosses and cotton grass. They are also of cultural importance, forming part of the farmed landscape and in the past were used for peat cutting.

When such areas are in their most natural state, they act like a giant sponge, retaining water in times of drought and helping to reduce the risk of flooding during periods of high rainfall. Heathland vegetation helps to roughen the ground surface, also slowing the rate of water and sediment running off the land. The soils in these areas, often high in organic matter, can store carbon, critical for preventing and mitigating the effects of climate change.

In the River Clun catchment, work is ongoing to understand the current extent of peaty soils and associated hydrology (distribution and movement of water on and below the earth’s surface) in the headwaters. We are working in partnership with Shropshire Wildlife Trust and Natural England to study the distribution of these soils and how water is moving through this landscape. Understanding the interactions between soils, water and human-modifications, such as ditches and land drainage networks, is important to inform potential longer-term restoration of some areas. We are working collaboratively with private landowners, sharing the survey results with them to enable them to consider how to protect the natural assets they have.

Sphagnum mosses carpet the ground in some areas in the headwaters, storing amazing volumes of water in their spongy forms. They play an important role in the creation and continuation of peaty soils and boggy areas. A variety of vegetation, including heather, bilberry, mosses, all helps to increase the ‘roughness’ of the surface and keep these naturally wet areas wetter for longer, making these soils and associated habitats more resilient to weather extremes. Study sites, over 2 phases, will cover approx 1000 hectares of land at on the Clun hilltops, including Rhos Fiddle and Mason’s Bank Nature Reserves. For more information on these reserves, visit: Rhos Fiddle | Shropshire Wildlife Trust and Mason's Bank | Shropshire Wildlife Trust

Supporting farmer collaboration

Birds of conservation concern are also benefitting from a joint project on boundary land between two farms. The project is enhancing existing field boundaries by fencing wide belts of new habitat to provide barn owls with rough grassland for hunting and creating linear habitat of open woodland / parkland which is ideal for redstarts. Nest and roost boxes have been installed and a survey this summer recorded two breeding pairs of redstarts had 5 successful fledglings between them. The project is also restoring hedgerows across the two farms, has set up a bird nest camera and is hosting farm walks for local children, the local wildlife group and farmer cluster group.

To read summaries of the projects which have been supported by the Farming in Protected Landscape Programme in the Shropshire Hills, click here.

Public surveys for Local Nature Recovery Strategies

A local nature recovery strategy (LNRS) is being developed by a partnership of local organisations who want to work with you to make it a success. The LNRS covers Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin and is a plan to make our natural environment healthier and more beautiful for people and wildlife. It will help us to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises, and to improve our health, wellbeing and economy. Whether you own or manage land, run a business, work in the public sector, or just care about nature, you have a role to play in helping nature recover, so please complete the short survey which is relevant to you by clicking on one of the links below:   general public farmers, land owners & land managers The survey closes on 16th October.

National Landscapes Association Conference in Shropshire

In July, we co-hosted the National Landscapes annual conference at Harper Adams University.  Delegates from National Landscapes from all around the country gathered for inspirational talks and workshops on the theme of ‘Changing Landscapes: Changing Minds’.  There were visits to seven landscapes in the region, including three field visits to explore our work with partners in the Shropshire Hills:

• River Clun Catchment - looking at ambitions to renaturalise headwater areas, and at citizen science and farmer collaboration and conservation activity.
• Long Mynd and Stiperstones - looking at tourism, access and engagement.
• Clee Hills - visiting two farms supported by Farming in Protected Landscapes programme.

We also helped to bring together a workshop with Harper Adams University on how a social and behavioural context can help us to deliver better farm advice and support. This was largely thanks to Dr Fiona Williams a former member of our Partnership and current member of our Farming in Protected Landscapes Grant Panel.

Meet the National Landscapes family! There are 38 National Landscapes across England and Wales.  national-landscapes.org.uk/national-landscapes

You can find out more about the Shropshire Hills National Landscape by visiting our website www.shropshirehills-nl.org.uk or contacting us at:

Shropshire Hills National Landscape Team
Unit 5, Drovers House,
Auction Yard,
Craven Arms,
Shropshire SY7 9BZ.

Telephone: 01743 254740

Email: shropshirehills-nl@shropshire.gov.uk

The Shropshire Hills National Landscape Team is hosted by Shropshire Council and funded also by Defra, Telford & Wrekin Council and project funders.

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