64 - Potteries and Churnet Valley : Natural Capital and Key Ecosystem Services

Introduction

The Potteries and Churnet Valley 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 Potteries and Churnet Valley NCA is contained in the ‘Analysis’ section 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
• 8: Derbyshire
• 35: Staffordshire

Provisioning services (food, fibre and water supply)

Food provision: The NCA is regionally important for food provision, although the majority of the NCA has poor-quality soil. Over half the area of the NCA has an Agricultural Land Classification of Grade 4 and over one-quarter is Grade 3. This is reflected in the land use: predominantly lowland mixed livestock and dairy farming, including beef and sheep production, with limited cropping of cereals at lower elevations on the southern fringe of the NCA.

Timber provision: The NCA is locally important for timber production from commercial conifer plantations, particularly in the Churnet Valley. Arisings from woodland and arboricultural management could be used for wood fuel.

Water availability: The catchment supports limited abstraction for public water supply, spray irrigation and industrial purposes. The status of the Churnet and Dove rivers is ‘over abstracted’ (Dove Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy, Environment Agency, 2006) while the River Trent, which rises on Biddulph Moor, has ‘no water available’ (Staffordshire Trent Valley Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy, Environment Agency, 2007). Minor sandstone aquifers occur around Leek and Alton although abstraction licences ‘will not be granted’ (River Basin Management Plan: Humber River Basin District, Environment Agency). The minor Foresbrook sandstone aquifer in Stoke is ‘over abstracted’ (The Catchment Sensitive Farming Programme is a joint venture between the Environment Agency and Natural England, funded by Defra and the Rural Development Programme for England). 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)

Climate regulation: Woodland covers seven per cent of the NCA. Significant areas include Churnet Valley and Coombes Valley nature reserve. Woodland is likely to be the most significant contributor to carbon storage and sequestration in this NCA. There is remnant heathland in the NCA, for example Cheddleton Heath. Carbon-rich peat soils occur in the uplands and moorlands in the NCA, for example Biddulph Moor and around Mow Cop.

Regulating soil erosion: Over one-quarter of the NCA has a free-draining, light, sandy soil. Free-draining soils in upland areas or in areas of steeply sloping land where bare earth is exposed are most at risk from wind erosion. The more fertile soils in the valleys and cloughs are at risk from flood events. Permanent cover of vegetation stabilises exposed upland and steeply sloping areas. Wetland habitats stabilise soils in valleys and cloughs and slow the water flow.

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: According to the Environment Agency’s flood risk map, the risk of flooding in the peaks and moorlands area is low, although there are a number of locations elsewhere in the NCA where the risk is significant and moderate. These areas are along the Lyme Valley in Newcastle and at various locations in Stoke and throughout the Churnet Valley.

Cultural services (inspiration, education and wellbeing)

Sense of place/inspiration: There is a variable and contrasting transitional landscape from the lowlands to the moorland fringe of the Peak District in the east. Deeply incised valleys, for example the Coombes and Churnet valleys are separated by flat-topped ridges. The Churnet Valley, which is renowned for its gorge-like character around Alton where it is up to 80 metres deep, is known locally as ‘little Switzerland’. There are several historic parklands that provide a setting for grand country houses and their designed landscapes create local distinctiveness, for example Alton Towers and Biddulph Grange. The NCA has inspired authors, for example George Eliot and Arnold Bennett (the latter immortalised the area of Stoke with his ‘Five Towns’ novels).

Sense of history:Famous potters, for example Wedgwood and Spode, gained an international reputation and five of the six towns comprising Stoke gained the epithet of ‘the potteries’, typified by bottle kilns and the terrace houses of the workers, many of which remain. Canals, wharfages, disused railway lines and derelict land add to the sense of industrial history. By the end of the 19th century, in Leek the silk industry became increasingly concentrated in factories in the town. Along the River Churnet, water mills powered flint mills and foundries. Metal ores and minerals were historically important; at Froghall, Bolton Copperworks dominates the landscape.

Recreation: Popular tourist destinations, for example Alton Towers and Trentham Gardens, make a significant contribution to the visitor economy of the region and provide employment in the service industries. This is both a benefit and a challenge. In the past, the wealth generated by industry funded the creation of a number of grand mansions set in historic parklands and gardens. Rights of way, canals, railways and trade routes were essential to traders who brought in materials and foodstuffs and exported finished goods and produce. Today, these routes provide access to the heritage features and wildlife of the NCA, providing physical and mental health- related benefits for local residents. Some, such as the Churnet Valley (heritage) Railway and the Potteries, have become visitor destinations.

Biodiversity: Exemplifying the wooded character of the NCA, the Churnet Valley SSSI and Coombes Valley SSSI represent the highest-quality areas of the largest remaining concentration of semi-natural ancient woodland in Staffordshire. The woods are especially rich in invertebrates and breeding birds. Outcrops of sandstone, for example at Dimmings Dale, support important communities of mosses and liverworts, including the nationally scarce species of liverwort: Meylan’s/Nees’ pouchwort. Riparian woodland is responsible for the influx of large, or coarse, woody debris into rivers and streams, which provides a habitat for rare invertebrate species, for example the logjammer hoverfly, caddisfly and soldier fly, and also provides habitat conditions for salmonids. Brown trout and the native white-clawed crayfish can be found in the main watercourses. There is a mixture of lowland heath and upland moorland characteristics. Some heathland occurs at higher elevations while there are many fragments of heath to the north of Stoke, leading up to the more extensive areas of heathland/moorland on the Millstone Grit outcrops of Mow Cop and Biddulph Moor. There are important concentrations of unimproved grassland within river valleys that support breeding curlew and snipe, and enclosed fields on higher ground. The NCA has a number of traditional hay meadows and pastures; some are of great botanical diversity – for example, Bath Pasture SSSI and Froghall Meadow and Pastures SSSI have regionally rare, greater butterfly orchids.

Geodiversity: Past and present quarrying, canal and railway cuttings provide a valuable opportunity for understanding the geological history of the area and demonstrating the link between geodiversity and the development of landscape, settlements and industry. For example, Hulme Quarry SSSI and National Nature Reserve (NNR) has excellent exposures of the Triassic river- lain red conglomerates and sandstones. The effects of glacial meltwater can be studied around Rudyard Lake and Horse Bridge and present-day geomorphic activity includes tufa deposits associated with the base-rich valley springs and landslide activity within valley sides, already over-steepened by glacial meltwater erosion, for example at Walton’s Wood. In addition, the River Trent and River Churnet are both associated with ongoing fluvial activity in the form of channel migration and flood plain deposition.