25 - North York Moors and Cleveland Hills : Detailed Statements of Environmental Opportunity

This section expands on the Headline Statements of Environmental Opportunity and provides further detail on each of the Statements of Environmental Opportunity.

SEO 1

SEO 1: Protect and positively manage the large areas of open, expansive moorland for the internationally important habitats and species that they support, for the sense of wildness and strong character of the areas, for their ability to sequester carbon, and for the benefits that well managed moorland brings for water quality and flood control.

For example by:

• Restoring and maintaining in good condition the internationally important blanket bog and peat soils by securing sustainable grazing, sensitive burning programmes and appropriate gully-blocking regimes. This will promote hydrological integrity, effective carbon sequestration, increased capacity of the moorland to hold water thereby improving regulation of peak water flows, improved water quality, and structural and biological diversity, and preserve archaeology.
• Seeking opportunities to restore, expand and improve ecological links between moorland habitats – upland wet and dry heathlands, blanket bog, species-rich flushes, woodland, scrub and grassland – to achieve a strong ecological network and reduce habitat fragmentation, thus increasing resilience to environmental change.
• Enhancing the full range of moorland habitats, ensuring that they are ecologically robust and able to support a diverse assemblage of moorland birds.
• Maintaining open, undeveloped areas of moorland which retain panoramic views, visual connection with surrounding areas and a sense of wildness by encouraging maintenance of hefted flocks and discouraging new fencing and other man-made infrastructure.
• Working collaboratively to reduce fire risk and to deal speedily and effectively with wildfires when they arise.

SEO 2

SEO 2: Conserve, enhance and promote the special qualities of the coast, inshore waters and sheltered harbours allowing the operation of natural coastal processes, the creation of new habitats. Manage the development and recreational needs of coastal settlements and secure a sustainable future for communities that are dependent on inshore fisheries.

For example by:

• Conserving the dramatic coastline features and the processes and geology that underpin them, including high coastal cliffs and distinctive headlands, which have been designated as the North Yorkshire and Cleveland Heritage Coast, and which, add greatly to the diversity, drama and character of the landscape because of their proximity to the high moors and sheltered dales.
• Conserving and enhancing the coastal villages and towns that cling to steep-sided valleys, including Staithes, Robin Hood’s Bay and Whitby, which form an important part of the developed landscape and are popular tourist destinations; working to secure a sustainable future for communities dependent on inshore fisheries; and taking full account of dynamic coastal processes in planning for new development and, where hard defences are not sustainable, planning and allowing for natural adaptation to coastal change, including allowing for landward relocation of semi-natural coastal habitat in areas of high erosion to ensure no net loss.
• Conserving and managing the natural processes that influence the sea cliffs of the coastline, which provide habitat for internationally important seabird colonies and support a range of plant communities typical of the dynamic habitat.
• Conserving, promoting and enhancing the important geodiversity features along this coastline, known as the Dinosaur Coast, such as classic geological exposures and rich fossil resources, for their educational, scientific and recreational value.
• Conserving and promoting the well established ‘easy access’ stretches of the coast that are suitable for people of all abilities, for example those found along the Cleveland Way, and enhancing the wildlife and landscape experience associated with these routes.
• Protecting the character of the larger coastal settlements which are under pressure for development, and supporting infrastructure and recreational use through appropriate design of new development while taking account of the strategic management policies for the coast.

SEO 3

SEO 3: Protect and improve access to and quiet enjoyment of the countryside, particularly in the North York Moors National Park, conserving the sense of tranquillity and relative remoteness, maintaining public access to the landscape, encouraging specialist forms of recreation appropriate to the area, conserving and providing interpretation of its history and numerous archaeological, biological and geological assets, and protecting the strong sense of place.

For example by:

• Protecting and positively managing the historic landscape features including tumuli, cairns, stone circles, historic tracks and buildings, ecclesiastical sites, deer parks, industrial features, pillow mounds and parkland, and reducing the risk status of scheduled monuments and listed buildings.
• Protecting and sympathetically managing the archaeological and palaeo-environmental evidence on moorlands, maintaining sustainable grazing intensities and managing scrub and bracken on archaeological sites.
• Protecting and positively managing geological and geomorphological features including exposures in rivers and disused quarries, landforms and river processes.
• Conserving and restoring historic farm buildings and longhouses throughout the area, and protecting monastic landscapes in remote valley heads.
• Raising understanding and awareness of the historic landscape and geology, by recording and monitoring those historic and geological features which may be impacted by climate change, and providing interpretation, for example of the area’s rich industrial heritage – iron, coal, jet and alum extraction.
• Managing sustained pressure from tourism to avoid problems such as inappropriate development, increased traffic, erosion along popular rights of way and irresponsible recreation (such as damaging use of four-wheel-drive vehicles and motorbikes).
• Maintaining the sense of tranquillity and remoteness shaped by the open moors and low density of settlement by encouraging sustainable recreational uses and protecting the rural dispersed settlement patterns, nucleated villages and local vernacular.
• Maintaining continuity with the historic built environment through continued use of local building materials (as appropriate) for restoration or new build, emphasising local distinctiveness, for example rubble limestone or dressed sandstone with red pantile roofs.
• Protecting, managing and enhancing the extensive network of public paths and tracks including the 155 km of the Cleveland Way which runs along the western side of the NCA, as well as the other 2,762 km of public rights of way and large areas of open access.

SEO 4

SEO 4: Seek opportunities to restore lowland fens, reedbeds, flood plain grazing marsh, flushes and riparian habitat to enhance biodiversity and contribute to regulating flood flows, enhancing water quality, aquifer recharge, carbon sequestration and storage, leading to benefits being experienced within the NCA and beyond to NCAs downstream.

For example by:

• Promoting agri-environment schemes and other mechanisms to encourage the restoration and expansion of these habitats to a more robust ecological network, supporting species such as water vole and the newly discovered alcathoe bat, reducing water pollution from agriculture, and enhancing biodiversity and resilience to environmental change.
• Raising awareness of the nationally important flushes which occur in this NCA. Encouraging the creation of buffers around wetland habitats and rivers, to enhance ecological quality and reduce water pollution and soil erosion resulting from agricultural run-off, particularly from intensive livestock and arable production, and in priority catchments.
• Encouraging the planting of riparian and flood plain habitats such as woodlands, in suitable locations, along the Esk, Seven and Leven rivers and in upland valleys to slow and reduce flood flows and sediment delivery to watercourses, and enhance biodiversity. Site-specific plans should consider other species’ needs and the landscape context.
• Restoring natural river and stream dynamics, morphology profiles and marginal habitats, thus supporting species such as freshwater pearl mussel.
• Maintaining undeveloped flood plains to store or slow water, optimising the benefits from extending washlands and flood storage by managing land to establish more diverse habitats such as wet pastures, wet woodland and other wetland habitats.
• Restoring peat soils on moorland plateaux and lowland wetlands to improve water storage capacity while also reducing flooding risk and soil erosion and improving water quality, climate regulation, habitat networks and ecosystem resilience to climate change.
• Managing and controlling invasive species and preventing their spread.

SEO 5

SEO 5: Positively manage woodlands, trees, wood pasture and historic parklands for their contribution to the characteristic landscapes of the area, their priority habitats and the species that they support, as well as their potential for carbon storage, regulation of peak flood flows and provision of renewable materials.

For example by:

• Maintaining and positively managing the pastoral and wooded character of the dales, their nationally important wildlife habitats and distinctive field patterns and boundaries. Ensuring that woodland biodiversity and soils are not damaged where woodland is used for activities such as recreation, livestock shelter and game rearing.
• Managing coniferous woodlands and restoring plantations on ancient woodland sites, ensuring sensitive management to protect and enhance breeding habitat for rare birds such as nightjar.
• Increasing cover of native woodland, trees and wood pasture characteristic of the area and appropriate to the local landscape to strengthen the habitat network and regulate peak flood flows, avoiding loss or damage to priority habitats or species or to geological or archaeological sites.
• Enhancing the positive character of historic parklands and deer parks and retaining veteran trees, in particular Duncombe Park and in the Hambleton Hills, and retaining ‘feature’ ornamental non-native trees.
• Planning for communities to make more use of renewable energy harvested from the landscape, developing opportunities for small-scale energy generation from wood fuel, ground source heat, solar and wind power.

Additional opportunity 1

Additional opportunity 1: Support sustainable management of agricultural land and grasslands to allow important food provision to continue, to achieve a strong network of semi-natural grasslands, reduce the threats of fragmentation of these habitats and enhance wider public benefits.

For example by:

• Restoring, expanding and reducing fragmentation of semi-natural grasslands, particularly lowland calcareous grassland on the Tabular and Hambleton Hills and species-rich lowland meadow grassland in the moorland dales – by limiting input of nutrients, managing the timing and intensity of grazing, managing encroaching or invasive vegetation, and introducing local provenance seed to the sward where required – thus improving habitat networks for iconic species such as the Duke of Burgundy and pearl-bordered fritillary butterflies, and other pollinator species, enabling greater movement of species through the landscape and increasing resilience to environmental change.
• Working with the farming community to secure more extensive and appropriate grazing of unimproved grasslands, increasing vegetation diversity and also avoiding compaction and poaching of soil by livestock, thereby enhancing carbon storage and water infiltration, and enhancing habitat for farmland birds of conservation concern.
• Enhancing arable habitats and promoting conservation headlands and margins to support rare arable weeds, nectar-feeding invertebrates and farmland birds such as tree sparrow and lapwing.
• Continuing provision of high-quality produce in the form of lamb, mutton, beef and dairy products in ways that optimise productivity while increasing the resilience of habitats and species to climate change and minimising carbon emissions.
• Supporting sustainable farming of rare breed livestock and enhancing management of semi-natural habitats through maintaining and (where appropriate) increasing stock numbers within extensive grazing systems; and developing local markets for rare breed food products.