National Character Area 62
Cheshire Sandstone Ridge - Natural Capital and Key Ecosystem Services
Introduction
The Cheshire Sandstone Ridge NCA provides a wide range of benefits to society. Each is derived from the attributes and processes (both natural and cultural features) within the area. These benefits are known collectively as ‘ecosystem services’. The predominant services are summarised below. Further information on ecosystem services provided in the Cheshire Sandstone Ridge NCA is contained in the ‘Analysis’ section of this website.
Note: The natural capital in this NCA is mapped below. This displays more recent national and publicly available data sets as used within Natural England’s 2020 Natural Capital Atlas Profiles.
The predominant ecosystem services in this NCA are also summarised below. The text contained in this section is based on the previous NCA profiles in 2014, and so is not entirely current. Further information on ecosystem services provided in the North Northumberland Coastal Plain NCA is contained in the Analysis: Ecosystem Services page of this website.
What is Natural Capital?
Natural capital means “the elements of nature that directly or indirectly produce value to people, including ecosystems, species, freshwater, land, minerals, the air and oceans, as well as natural processes and functions” (Natural Capital Committee, 2017).
It is helpful to consider natural capital in the form of a logic chain that represents the links between ecosystem assets, services, benefits and value to people. The figure below displays that logic chain. The quantity and quality of ecosystem assets (woodland, bogs, etc) support different types of ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration or water filtration. These ecosystem services then provide different benefits to society, providing value for people. The figure also shows how management interventions, as well as pressures and drivers of change, influence this chain. Other capital inputs are also often needed for people to obtain the benefits from ecosystem services (a simple example is the processing of trees to produce wood products).
As an example, an area of woodland (ecosystem asset) may reduce air pollution created by traffic on a nearby road. This woodland is therefore improving air quality (ecosystem service) in the local area which results in cleaner air and improved health in the adjacent residential street (benefit). This cleaner air has a value because we know it impacts the health and wellbeing of communities.
Sometimes for ease of understanding, economic framing is used to give these benefits a monetary value. The figure below shows how natural capital assets support the provision of ecosystem services, benefits and value. The roots of the tree show how aspects of asset quality are critical to the provision of ecosystem services. The roots also show that geodiversity underpins the ecosystem assets and therefore the ecosystem services and benefits they can provide. It is important to remember that this diagram, and natural capital frameworks more generally, are a simplification of how nature works in practice.
Natural Capital within this NCA
In 2018, Natural England published ‘Natural Capital Indicators: for defining and measuring change in natural capital’ (Lusardi et al., 2018). This report identified key properties of the natural environment vital for the long-term sustainability of benefits, which can act as indicators of change.
These indicators are designed to inform our understanding of the state of our natural assets. The indicators highlight the importance of our natural assets for delivering which ecosystem service and the benefits they provide for society. The indicators and datasets identified in Natural England’s Natural Capital Indicators Project provide the foundation for the Natural Capital Atlas Profiles.
Natural England’s Natural Capital Atlas Profiles provide an “off the shelf” natural capital evidence base for each county or city region. They have a wide variety of uses with more information in the How to Start Using Your Natural Capital Atlas.
The Natural Capital indicators are presented on the map below by broad asset theme, displaying the natural capital within the NCA.
It is noted that not all indicators listed within the Natural Capital Atlas Profiles are included within the map as data is not yet available to measure them. Refer to the “Indicator Gaps and Limitations” of the Natural Capital Atlas Profiles for further information.
Natural Capital Atlas Profiles
The following Natural Capital Atlas Profiles cover counties within this NCA:
- 5: Cheshire
Note that numbers and figures in the body of the text are based on the 2014 profiles, unless otherwise stated.
Provisioning services (food, fibre and water supply)
Timber provision: Over 12 per cent of the area is woodland, including both broadleaved and conifer plantations, for example Primrose Hill and Nettleford Delamere Forest and Peckforton Woods are the largest wooded areas; the latter contains the largest tract of sessile oak in Cheshire. The Forestry Commission has also established extensive community woodland of mixed planting with open spaces on the northern slopes of the Old Pale, within the Delamere Forest, in the north of the area. Private woodlands include Peckforton and Bolesworth. Approximately half of the area is within the Mersey Forest which has as an objective the creation of sustainably managed community woodlands that include timber provision to local communities through wood allotments.
Water availability: Groundwater availability in the Weaver/Gowy catchment is good. The rivers Gowy and Weaver rise in the Peckforton Hills towards the south of the area. A secondary aquifer extends from Tarporley in the central area to Frodsham in the north. For information regarding the current state of water availability within this NCA, refer to the Environment Agency (Abstraction Licensing Strategy).
Regulating services (water purification, air quality maintenance and climate regulation)
Regulating water quality: For information regarding the current state of water quality within this NCA, refer to the Environment Agency (Draft river basin management plan maps).
Regulating water flow: Data from the Environment Agency’s flood map for rivers indicates that the risk of flooding is restricted to the river valleys and watercourses, both within the NCA and in the neighbouring NCAs. The management of water is critical to the internationally important areas of meres and mosses and other nationally important wetland habitats. Periods of drought can degrade peat soils that can liberate greenhouse gases and lead to catastrophic loss of habitat.
Cultural services (inspiration, education and wellbeing)
Sense of place/inspiration: A strong sense of place is evoked by the prominent ridge with its outcrops and bluffs over 100 m high comprised of Triassic sandstone and conglomerate – especially Beeston Crag and Raw Head geological SSSI – contrasting with the surrounding plain. At many locations solid blocks of woodland (including conifers) and high hedgerows combine to evoke a strong sense of enclosure and a wooded feel in stark contrast to the unrestricted panoramic views afforded by the Heathland was once a common sight in Cheshire, but has become increasingly fragmented and degraded. The most extensive heathland survives at Bickerton Hill SSSI and is the largest area of surviving lowland heath in Cheshire, providing a glimpse of a historical landscape.
Tranquillity: Statistics obtained from the Intrusion Map (2007) provided by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) indicate a 51 per cent increase in ‘disturbed’ areas from the 1960s to However, almost half the total NCA area is still considered to be ‘undisturbed’. Also notable is the emergence of ‘urban’ as a feature in the 2007 statistics. Traffic noise is cited as the main disturbance to tranquillity. Despite the reduction in ‘undisturbed’ areas, the NCA is important in providing the population of the nearby conurbations with the opportunity to experience the contrast between the wide-open, unenclosed landscape on the ridge and the enclosed feel in the valleys, woodland and sunken lanes.
Recreation: For its area, the NCA has an extensive rights-of-way network totalling 362 The most notable of these is the Sandstone Trail which stretches for 55 km and links the sites of the iron-age forts on the ridgetop. National Cycle Network routes 70 (the Cheshire Cycleway) and 71 cross the NCA. The former provides a circular route. There are also regional cycle paths such as the Whitegate Way cycle path. Little Budworth Country Park and Delamere Forest, with the largest area of woodland in Cheshire and its visitor centre, are also popular visitor destinations.
Biodiversity: The NCA contains a strong mosaic of broadleaved mixed woodland, including pine, particularly around the area of Delamere Forest Peckforton Woods SSSI has the largest tract of sessile oak in Cheshire. Half of the ancient woodland is designated Plantations on Ancient Woodland Sites. Ponds are a characteristic feature of the Cheshire landscape and contain a diversity of important wetland species, including great crested newts.
The meres and mosses of the north-west Midlands form a geographically discrete series of nationally and internationally important lowland open water and peatland sites designated as SSSI, SAC and Ramsar sites. The suite of sites support an outstanding assemblage of plants and animals, and some sites have developed a mature schwingmoor comprising floating bog moss with common cotton grass and cranberry. The drier areas of these sites typically support heathland relics, areas of purple moor grass and open semi-natural woodland which is important for Lepidoptera.
Large areas of lowland heathland survive on Bickerton Hill SSSI and at Little Budworth Common with fragmented areas of lowland meadow throughout, particularly along the Pettypool Brook Valley and along the line of the Shropshire Union Canal. The wetland communities along the course of Pettypool Brook Valley SSSI comprise Cheshire’s most extensive and diverse valley mire system. The mature woodland, with its abundant dead wood, and the extensive peatland habitats support populations of a number of national and county rarities, making it one of Cheshire’s foremost invertebrate sites.
Geodiversity: The prominent sandstone ridge with outcrops and bluffs over 100 m high comprising Triassic sandstone and conglomerate, for example Beeston Crag and Raw Head geological SSSI, provides expansive In contrast to the surrounding plain, the ridge provides the locally rare sight of solid rock, evoking a sense of place and providing important sites for education and scientific research.
The escarpment between Tower Wood and Droppingstone Well, known as Raw Head SSSI, is a nationally important geological site for the study of Triassic and glacial geo-morphology. The rivers Weaver and Gowy both illustrate fluvial activity in the form of channel migration and flood plain deposition, representing present-day geo-morphological processes.
Cheshire possesses mineral resources of national importance in the form of silica sand and building sand. A major extraction area is located around Delamere from the Delamere sand sheet.
The peatlands and mosses have built up over many thousands of years, thus providing an invaluable record of the detail of this process preserved in the layers of peat and mineral sediments.
