61 - Shropshire, Cheshire and Staffordshire Plain : Analysis: Ecosystem Services

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Dairying
• Sheep and cattle rearing
• Some arable
• Traditional orchards

State – Food production is important to the region. Seventy per cent of the soils are classified as Grade 3 and 17 per cent Grade 2 in terms of their production and this is reflected in their use.

Throughout the plain, the water retention and fertility of the clay soils support lush pastures for grazing dairy cattle or for growing silage or hay. Significant numbers of dairy-herds supply milk to dairy processors in the NCA that produce a range of dairy products including cheese producers making a range of Cheshire cheese and ice cream.

In contrast to the plain, the soils on some of the gentle, freer draining side slopes of the sandstone ridges are used to grow fodder crops such as maize for winter feed.

Potatoes are grown on some of the lighter, sandier soils in Shropshire. In Staffordshire, there are mixed farms and significant areas of arable, including potatoes and combinable crops.

There is a number of degraded traditional orchards through-out the NCA, particularly in Cheshire.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – The area is important for food production and food distribution, being proximal to roads and large urban settlements, markets and processing plants.

The increasing demand for food is likely to continue leading to a high demand for improved grassland that could result in the loss of semi- natural habitats and erosion of the pastoral character through the introduction of fodder crops such as maize to provide winter feed.

These could lead to larger field sizes, increased fertiliser and pesticide inputs and improved drainage which could threaten field ponds and characteristic meres and mosses. However, opportunities exist to incorporate measures to mitigate such consequences, such as the incorporation of semi-natural habitats in to agricultural systems that can protect habitats and the soil resource.

As well as providing a local supply of fruit for local markets, orchards are hotspots for biodiversity, supporting a wide range of heritage crops and wildlife

Opportunities – Work in collaboration with farmers to safeguard food production while incorporating measures that support the essential natural services that underpin this production. For example, protecting soils, water and biodiversity by incorporating species-rich field margins, buffering watercourses, managing hedgerows and incorporating habitats in arable areas for farmland birds.

Encourage the management and planting of traditional orchards for the benefits to biodiversity, heritage and local markets. For example, orchard planting with communities through The Mersey Forest Plan.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Food provision
• Regulating water quality
• Regulating soil erosion
• Regulating soil quality
• Sense of history
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Genetic diversity

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Conifer plantations
• Native woodland community woodland
• Valley or ‘clough’ woodland

State – The greatest concentration of woodland is in the north and north-east where commercial forest plantations and community woodlands are grown on the thin gravelly soils.

Community woodland initiatives, for example, The Mersey Forest Partnership are planting sustainably managed community woodlands that include timber provision.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – Timber was historically an essential product of the area. It was used for charcoal in the salt industry and for iron smelting in the south-east before the widespread use of coal. Timber was also the prime construction material and Shropshire oak, in particular, was sought after for shipbuilding. Delamere Forest was a Royal Forest until 1812 and in 1919 the remaining Crown woodlands were passed to the (then) Forestry Commission to be managed for timber production.

Woodland is virtually absent from the plain, except in the north around Northwich, being restricted to the poorer soils on the crests and slopes of ridges and in clumps in wetland areas and as clough woodland on valley sides.

Timber provision could be increased, as a by-product of woodland management through coppicing and pollarding.

Opportunities – Support partnerships in Seeking opportunities to stimulate the wood product and wood fuel markets in nearby urban areas in order to sustain the management of native woodlands, for example, The Mersey Forest Partnership.

Seek to bring more woodland into active management for timber where this will be beneficial for a number of services, including regulating soil erosion and water flow, biodiversity and recreation.

Ensure that new conifer plantations are sensitively sited and do not fragment areas of semi-natural woodland or undermine local landscape character. Seek opportunities to replace conifer plantations on ancient woodland sites with native species.

The Mersey Forest Plan identifies potential areas for woodland planting in the north.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Timber provision
• Biodiversity
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Sense of history
• Climate regulation
• Water availability
• Regulating water flow
• Recreation

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Rivers
• Aquifer
• Reservoirs

State – The NCA has ten main rivers. River Severn and its tributaries (Perry, Roden and Tern), the River Weaver, River Dane, and the River Bollin and its tributary the River Dean in the north east of the NCA, and the River Sow and River Penk.

There are several reservoirs throughout the NCA, including the Knighton Reservoir (near Eccleshall) and the Hurleston Reservoir (near Nantwich) that store water for public, agricultural and industrial uses. Other canal- feeder reservoirs are at various locations.

There is ‘water available’ along the River Severn; (Severn Corridor Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy, Environment Agency, 2003) however, its tributaries Perry, Roden, and Tern are over licensed (Shropshire Middle Severn Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy, Environment Agency, 2007). In the north of the NCA, the River Weaver and River Dane have ‘water available’ for further abstraction (Weaver and Dane Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy, Environment Agency). The River Bollin has ‘no water available’ within the NCA as it runs north of Macclesfield (Mersey and Bollin Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy, Environment Agency, 2005). Where it is accessible, water is abstracted from the aquifer via boreholes that supplement surface water supplies.

An area of the NCA overlays a major sandstone aquifer extending north from Shrewsbury and west around Oswestry and Chester. Groundwater resources, located in the south and west of the NCA are over licensed (Shropshire Middle Severn Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy, Environment Agency, 2007).

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – Major rivers and their tributaries are important sources of water for domestic, agricultural and industrial use. In addition, there are large numbers of designated conservation in the catchment, with SSSI, Ramsar and SAC designations, for example, the Midland Meres and Mosses and River Dee that are reliant on consistent water availability. Greater demand for water, associated with expansion to the settlements that rely on these catchments, will lead to increased abstraction and a potential fall in water levels.

Areas where the Sherwood sandstone is exposed at the surface provide recharge areas to the underlying aquifer and require careful maintenance of good soil structure to maximise water infiltration.

Trees and woodland reduce both the volume and speed of rainwater run-off through interception. Tree roots break up the ground allowing greater infiltration and riparian trees slow flow rates.

Opportunities – Promote the sustainable use of water in domestic, industrial and agricultural sectors to reduce demand.

Where appropriate, encourage rainwater harvesting and the adoption of sustainable urban areas to improve rates of water infiltration.

Encourage the construction of winter water storage reservoirs in agricultural areas (as part of the Catchment Sensitive Farming Priority Catchment), particularly where these can also make a positive contribution to wetland habitat networks and local landscape character.

Identify and enhance areas for natural water storage, for example, expanding areas of flood plain grazing marshes and lowland meadows along the river valleys, and creating ponds and scrapes.
Maintain and extend riparian woodland along the river valleys to increase interception rates and slow the flow of surface water.

Using support available through initiatives such as CSF and agri-environment scheme options, encourage good soils management, particularly in aquifer recharge areas.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Water availability
• Regulating soil quality
• Regulating water flow
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Recreation
• Biodiversity
• Climate regulation

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Traditional orchards

State – Traditional orchards were once an important part of the landscape. Some older farms, estates, smallholdings and cottages still have remains of orchard trees either in the garden hedgerow or in grassy paddocks set close to the house. A number of fragmented orchards survive, for example, in the area around Attingham Park in Shropshire and notably, the pear orchards at Acton Bridge in Cheshire.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Local evidence shows that there are over 30 varieties of apples specific to Cheshire. A number were developed in the 18th century, for example, Ecclestone Pippin, Lord Derby and Gooseberry Pippin. The genetic diversity preserved in old fruit varieties may be important to future food security by retaining genes for future crop propagation.

In addition to being a heritage asset to the area, orchards are hotspots for biodiversity, supporting a wide range of wildlife and containing priority habitats and species including populations of pollinators.

Opportunities – Using support available through agri-environment schemes and landscape partnerships, encourage the expansion of existing orchards and the re-instatement of old orchards to preserve heritage varieties and fruit tree suppliers.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Genetic diversity
• Food provision
• Biodiversity
• Pollination
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Sense of history
• Recreation

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Miscanthus
• Existing woodland cover
• Community woodland

State – Miscanthus is grown in Shropshire. The main cluster of sites are south of Market Drayton and around the area of Newport and around Eccleshall in Staffordshire.

There is a high potential yield (JCA No. 61 – Shropshire, Cheshire and Staffordshire Plain, Natural England) for miscanthus in the north and west of NCA, with a medium potential yield in the south (between Shrewsbury and Stoke-on-Trent). For short rotation coppice there is considerable variability between medium and high potential yield throughout the NCA.

The Mersey Forest Partnership are planting sustainably managed community woodlands that include timber provision to local communities who harvest logs from identified trees and in return the woodland is thinned to improve its structure and biodiversity.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – A biomass plant at Eccleshall utilises miscanthus to provide electricity to 2,600 properties in Eccleshall, making the town virtually carbon-neutral. The plant has stimulated the local growing of miscanthus and developed a supply chain local to the plant.

Existing woodland cover offers some potential for the provision of biomass, by bringing unmanaged woodland under management and as a by-product of commercial timber production.

Away from the lush pastures of the plain, the gently undulating landscape may provide opportunities for planting miscanthus without detriment to landscape character.

Strong field patterns, defined by hedgerows, often with dense, mature hedgerow trees are unlikely to be adversely impacted by miscanthus. This may provide opportunities for farm diversification and stimulate more markets and supply chains for more biomass plants.

Opportunities – Seek opportunities to expand miscanthus in appropriate locations where this can be accommodated within local landscapes and contribute to local biodiversity.

Seek opportunities to bring existing woodland into active management where this can make a positive contribution to woodland biodiversity and support provision of other services such as regulating soil erosion, water flow and recreational provision.

Support community woodland partnerships, for example, The Mersey Forest, in managing existing woodland, developing supply chains and establishing markets for wood fuel.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Biomass energy
• Climate regulation
• Regulating water flow
• Regulating soil erosion
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Biodiversity

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Peat/fen soils/ mosses
• Wetland habitats
• Heathland and woodland
• Permanent grasslands
• Biomass – fuel and generation

State – The majority of this NCA has low soil carbon content. However, significant wetland areas and extensive areas of peat soils and permanent grasslands provide an important carbon storage function in this NCA.

Extensive woodland is restricted to the east, where there are commercial woodland plantations and fragmented areas of heathland exist on the poorer soils associated with the sandstone ridges. The NCA has significant areas of miscanthus and a biomass plant.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – Peat soils are likely to be the most significant contributor to climate regulation. However, historic peat extraction and the lowering of the water table have reduced the effectiveness with which peatlands in this NCA contribute to carbon storage. Therefore, the conservation and management of meres and mosses is extremely important for climate regulation in addition to benefits to biodiversity and sense of place.

Good management of existing woodland can ensure their role in sequestering and storing carbon is optimised and will benefit other services, for example, biodiversity. Heathlands are characterised by a cover of 25 per cent dwarf shrubs of the botanical family Ericaceae. Woody shrub species play an important role in carbon sequestration in grassland ecosystems. Retaining soils under permanent pasture also contributes to the carbon storage within the NCA.

Opportunities – Working in partnership with the Environment Agency, Landowners and landscape-scale partnerships, seek opportunities to reverse the degradation of peat mosses, for example, by careful water management, blocking drainage ditches and damming to raise the water level as used effectively on Fenn’s, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses.

Create new or extend areas of heathland to halt further fragmentation and to increase their connectivity to benefit biodiversity and climate regulation.

Protect permanent grassland from ploughing or conversion to arable.

Encouraging the installation of small-scale biomass plants in local civic buildings.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Climate regulation
• Biodiversity
• Regulating soil erosion
• Regulating water quality
• Recreation
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Sense of history

No information available.

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Rivers and their tributaries
• Meres/lakes
• Aquifer
• Sustainable land management

State – For information regarding the current state of water quality within this NCA, refer to the Environment Agency (Draft river basin management plan maps).

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – The key problems in this Priority Catchment are nutrient enrichment from agricultural run-off and soil loss causing sedimentation22 which is a particular threat to the Meres and Mosses SAC and Ramsar and the River Dee and Aqualate Mere SAC.

The reasons for failing ecological status (River Basin Management Plan: North West River Basin District, Environment Agency) of the watercourses are diffuse pollution from pesticides and discharges from septic tanks. The aquatic ecology suffers from current and past industrial discharges. Higher salinities are found in areas adjacent to the Mersey Estuary at Stanlow, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn and the Wirral, largely attributed to saline intrusion following unsustainable abstraction of salt.

Outcrops of Triassic sandstone provide recharge areas to the underlying aquifer, requiring the careful management of fertilisers and pesticides to prevent pollution from entering groundwaters.

Although the aquifer is protected by glacial drift on the plain, in areas where the drift is absent, nitrate concentrations are increasing in water supply boreholes. This has led to the designation of a groundwater nitrate vulnerable zone across the NCA, for example, around the areas of Newport, Market Drayton and to the east of Chester. In addition, there are areas of eutrophic nitrate vulnerable zones around the meres of Ellesmere and Whitchurch.

Opportunities – In partnership with farmers and landowners, pursue measures, supported through the CSF scheme and other initiatives, to reduce nutrient and sediment input to watercourses: reduce foul run-off from outdoor feeding areas, silage clamps, yards and cattle tracks; prevent stock from entering streams and poaching stream banks and manage cattle movements to avoid poaching of fields; restore semi-natural buffer water courses from nutrient run- off.

Physical barriers around arable fields, for example, permanent grassland margins, well- maintained hedgerows and boundary walls can reduce wind erosion of soil, a source of sedimentation.

These measures support the Environment Agency’s protection zones and can have a positive effect on ground and surface waters benefiting biodiversity.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Regulating water quality
• Regulating water flow
• Regulating soil erosion
• Biodiversity
• Sense of place/inspiration

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Flood plains, rivers and watercourses
• Semi-natural vegetation
• Riparian woodland

State – Data from the Environment Agency’s flood risk map indicate that there is a high risk of fluvial flooding to a number of settlements, including, the historic bridging town of Shrewsbury, and properties around the north of Telford, Congleton and Northwich. Critical infrastructures including electrical sub- stations are also at risk, including a sewage treatment works near properties at Winsford and Middlewich.

There is a greater risk of flooding associated with surface water, particularly in locations proximal to meres such as Ellesmere and Oswestry.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Flooding in Shrewsbury is potentially exacerbated by the loss of flood plain in the area of the Severn-Vyrnwy confluence on the western boundary of the NCA. The flood plain of the River Weaver is relatively small, resulting in rural properties and agricultural land flooding quickly with little warning.

In rural areas in the middle and north of the NCA, there are few properties at fluvial flood risk. However, the River Dane and Wheelock catchments are sensitive to land management change and poor maintenance of watercourses can increase the risk of localised flooding to agricultural land. River maintenance pilot initiatives are allowing farmers to maintain their own watercourses, without the need for prior consent, for example, the River Duckow, pilot area in Market Drayton. This can be a benefit to water management and a challenge to maintain the integrity of habitats both within the pilot area and downstream.

Opportunities – Identify and create natural areas for flood water storage to reduce the reliance upon hard engineering solutions to flooding in settlements. Reinstating flood plain grazing marsh and other wetland habitats within the flood plain, ensuring that the flood plain function is not reduced by inappropriate development.

Remove constrictions to river flow, such as weirs, which will also benefit migratory fish.

Create and manage riparian habitat, for example, wet woodland and reedbeds that can reduce the rate of run-off and filter water.

In urban areas promote multiple use riparian open spaces, for example flood compatible playing fields and parks. Ensure that new developments take into account the principles of SUDS by including greenspaces and areas of unsealed surfaces.

Work with farmers and Environment Agency to monitor the outcomes of the river maintenance pilot, assessing methods and feasibility of expanding to other areas without damaging habitats.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Regulating water flow
• Regulating soil erosion
• Regulating soil quality
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Biodiversity

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Mineral soils derived from the Triassic sandstone
• Soils derived from glacial till
• Fen peat soils

State – Arable systems predominate on the freely draining soils on the lower, less steep slopes of the ridges and areas of Shropshire and Staffordshire. Over a prolonged period of cultivation, this can damage the soil structure.

The slowly permeable seasonally wet slightly acid but base-rich loamy and clayey soils and the fen peat soils may suffer compaction and/ or capping as they are easily damaged when wet.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – The soil structure of the freely draining sandy soils can be easily damaged where organic matter levels are low after continuous arable cultivation or where soils are compacted. This may be improved by careful addition of organic matter. Soils over the aquifer are valuable for aquifer recharge; this requires maintenance of good soil structure to aid water infiltration.

Compaction and/or capping of slowly permeable soils may reduce water infiltration and increase diffuse pollution as a result of surface water run-off, increasing siltation in water courses and meres. Carefully increasing organic matter content of soils can help reduce these problems.

Where peaty soils and wetland habitats predominate, retaining water levels will maintain the soil structure.

Opportunities – Encourage the adoption of techniques promoted through the CSF and other initiatives, to manage arable and livestock systems sustainably to protect the soil structure, for example adopting sustainable stocking levels and preventing poaching, and carefully managing vehicle movements in wet conditions to avoid soil compaction

Continue to work in partnership to restore degraded areas of peat and manage wetland habitats to safeguard the carbon-rich soil and reintroduce peat forming vegetation.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Regulating soil quality
• Food provision
• Water availability
• Climate regulation
• Regulating soil erosion
• Regulating water quality
• Regulating water flow
• Biodiversity
• Sense of place/inspiration

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Soils
• Semi-natural habitat
• Field boundary features

State – The West Midlands Meres’ Priority Catchment, has identified that soil loss is causing sedimentation in a number of meres and watercourses across the NCA.

The lighter freely draining soils have an enhanced risk of soil erosion on sloping land where cultivated or bare soil is exposed, exacerbated where organic matter levels are low after continuous arable cultivation or where soils are compacted. These soils are also at risk of wind erosion, particularly where left bare, as are the fen peat soils. They are also susceptible to rapid run-off during storm events.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – Regulating soil erosion is an important service in this NCA as it supports food production, water quality and the integrity of the meres and mosses. Maintaining organic matter levels in cultivated soils will reduce their susceptibility to erosion.

Permanent vegetation cover, for example, pasture alongside river valleys and watercourses, stabilises soils and traps sediment, helping to slow water flow. In arable fields, permanent grassland around field boundaries, well- maintained hedgerows and boundary walls can help to alleviate wind erosion of soil.

Riparian woodland and lowland meadow along watercourses offer protection against run-off. Conversely, invasive non-native species, for example stands of Himalayan balsam, create denuded river banks in the winter months, which are markedly more prone to soil erosion.

The restoration of hedgerows may constrain food productivity, but in the longer-term maintain the productivity of the land by protecting the soil resource and is likely to lead to an improvement to water quality and a reduction in soil loss.

Opportunities – Encourage the adoption of techniques promoted through CSF and other initiatives, to manage arable and livestock systems sustainably to protect the soil resource, for example by buffering watercourses and encouraging the uptake of agri-environment options to establish permanent grassland or conservation field margins and maintaining hedgerows and dry- stone walls on the ridges.

Encourage the planting of trees and areas of transitional scrub on areas at risk of erosion, for example on slopes.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Regulating soil erosion
• Regulating water quality
• Regulating soil quality
• Food provision
• Regulating water quality
• Biodiversity
• Sense of place/inspiration

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Upland heathland
• Lowland meadows
• Lowland grassland
• Traditional orchards
• Hedgerows

State – With arable crops limited to specific areas and few, scattered, traditional orchards, this service is of very localised importance to food production in the NCA. Areas of upland heath, lowland meadow, hedgerows and grassland habitats provide sources of nectar for pollinating insects, but collectively represent less than 0.2 per cent of the NCA. Late flowering nectar sources, such as heather, are important in providing supply of nectar over an extended period of time.

Residential gardens provide important sources of nectar in settlements and often have more diverse sources of nectar than occurs in agricultural monocultures.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Crops that are currently grown in the NCA do not rely on pollinators therefore their value is to biodiversity and the scattered orchards that remain. This could be a limiting factor to future changes in cropping regimes.

An increase to the populations of pollinators may facilitate an increase to the number of orchards, fruit farms and types of crops that could be grown in the future thus expanding the range of food provision and increasing the resilience to the effects of climate change.

Expanding areas of upland heath and meadow, planting a network of species-rich hedgerows, creating flower-rich field margins in agricultural areas and species rich roadside verges would all reduce habitat fragmentation thus providing a more robust ecological network for pollinators.

Opportunities – Seek opportunities to increase nectar provision within the agricultural landscape, using mechanisms such as agri- environment scheme options, to expand semi-natural habitat, particularly in proximity to orchards or pollinated crops.

Expanded heathland in particular will provide late sources of nectar, benefitting a number of services and strengthen historic landscape character. This would also provide habitat and food source for potential pest regulators, for example, birds.

Encourage local authorities, highways and road maintenance contractors to diversify the species mix of roadside verges.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Pollination
• Food production
• Climate regulation
• Regulating soil erosion
• Regulating water quality
• Biodiversity
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Pest regulation
• Sense of history

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Semi-natural habitat
• Hedgerows
• Arable margins

State – The contribution to pest regulation services is limited to semi-natural habitat and hedgerows.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Semi-natural habitats and hedges proximal to areas of commercial arable agriculture may support species of beneficial predators that can regulate populations of pests that adversely affect crop yields, hence food provision.

Opportunities – In agricultural areas, expand or create new areas of semi-natural habitat, for example beetle banks, headlands and hedgerows, to provide a mosaic of supporting habitat for beneficial pollinators in areas of arable monoculture, supporting a more robust ecosystem that will benefit food production and biodiversity.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Pest regulation
• Pollination
• Biodiversity
• Food production
• Sense of place/inspiration

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Sandstone ridge
• Extensive lush pastures
• Meres and Mosses
• Rivers, streams and canals and field ponds
• Woodland and boundary features
• Historic features
• Lowland heathland
• Local vernacular building style
• Local landmark of Jodrell Bank
• Local greenspace

State – In the north, a sense of place is provided by an extensive, rolling lowland landscape of lush pastures dominated by dairy farming, interrupted by sandstone ridges with rivers and tributaries with wooded cloughs. Sense of place is further supported by the area’s numerous estates, estate buildings and historic parklands and black and white moated houses.

Feelings of inspiration and escapism are likely to be associated with the ridges that rise above the plain with long distance views of prominent hills outside the NCA, such as, the Wrekin and Wenlock Edge, the foothills of the Welsh mountains in the west and the Pennines and Peak District to the east.

In the north, a sense of place is provided by an extensive, rolling lowland landscape of lush pastures dominated by dairy farming, interrupted by sandstone ridges with rivers and tributaries with wooded cloughs.

Numerous meres and extensive mosses, for example, Fenn’s, Whixall, Bettisfield, Wem and Cadney mosses create distinctive wide-open landscapes.

Communities value their local greenspace as places of local distinctiveness that provides opportunities to engage with nature close to where they live and work and encourages a sense of community.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – The area comprises a number of contrasting landscapes owing their origin to the underlying geology. The most notable contrast is in topography between the wind-swept sandstone ridges which rise steeply up from the relatively flat rolling plain.

The geology and pastoral character of the NCA should be maintained and enhanced through careful management.

Woodland occurs on the slopes of the ridges and in valley cloughs. There are extensive blocks in the north and east of the NCA, for example, fragments of, the former Royal Forest of Mara.

A sense of enclosure is evoked by lush, dense vegetation is further reinforced by country lanes between high hedges or valley bottoms below wooded ridge lines.

The NCA has inspired many authors: the early 17th-century Izaak Walton’s The Compleat Angler is an important work for both literary and environmental reasons. It is one of the earliest works to be inspired by country life and a love for the natural world and also an influential piece of pastoral writing.

P.G. Wodehouse described Shropshire as ‘the nearest earthly place to paradise’.

Most famously, Lewis Carroll, was born and raised in Daresbury, Cheshire and included the Cheshire Cat in his novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland ,grinning like a Cheshire cat.

Folklore draws the conclusion that a Cheshire cat grins because of the abundance of milk and cream.

Opportunities – There are opportunities to increase interpretation and understanding of the historic assets, geology and landforms illustrating how geology influences settlement patterns, human activity and innovation and relate this to the landscape for visitors to the ridge and those walking the Sandstone Trail.

Work with farmers to maintain food production while maintaining the pastoral character of the plain. Growing arable crops in appropriate areas, restoring hedgerows with typical species, by gapping-up and planting their accompanying hedgerow trees; adopting appropriate cutting regimes and tagging to extend the age range and species diversity.

Maintaining dry-stone walls on the ridge in preference to using stock- proof fencing thus optimising their value to resource protection and sense of place and history.

Through landscape partnerships, support projects that seek to reverse the fragmentation of upland heathland, lowland grassland and conserve and protect the Meres and Mosses for future generations and for the benefits to biodiversity and climate regulation.

Encourage the inclusion of greenspace in new developments to provide opportunities for engaging with nature and fostering community spirit.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Sense of place/inspiration
• Sense of history
• Recreation
• Biodiversity
• Climate regulation

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Iron-age hill forts
• Roman roads and settlements
• Country houses moated houses and castles
• Market towns
• Settlement patterns
• Historic parkland
• Traditional orchards
• Areas of ridge and furrow
• Local vernacular building style
• Railways and canals

State – The history of the landscape is evident in the iron-age hill forts, linked by sections of The Sandstone Trail, and Wat’s Dyke – an Anglo Saxon boundary earthwork.

The former hunting chases of the Forests of Macclesfield and Delamere are still evident in the landscape. Moated manor houses still exist, for example at Little Moreton Hall.

Roman roads such as Watling Street linking London to mid-Wales, via Wroxeter are still evident today.

Areas of ridge and furrow on the plain indicate former infield and outfield systems and often relate to historic field pattern which will in many cases, be of post medieval origin.

The historic character is further reinforced by a settlement pattern of dispersed market towns and large farmsteads, typically of brick or sandstone spread throughout.

Other settlements, small villages and hamlets are few and dispersed. The hamlets tend to be loosely clustered, with houses spread out along the network of hedged lanes, in the open countryside.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – A number of historic sites in this NCA are popular visitor destinations: the extensive parklands and gardens including Tatton and Attingham that are owned and run by the National Trust; Country houses such as Gawsworth, Arley and Adlington Halls; fortified manor houses and castles reflecting cross border tensions such as at Beeston, Acton Burnell and Cholmondeley Castle.

Crewe was founded on the growth of the railways, and the historic towns of Shrewsbury and city of Chester have a wealth of 17th and 18th-century half-timber, brick and red sandstone buildings.

The influence of the Romans can be seen through the notable roads built to cross the plain particularly Watling Street which linked London to mid-Wales.

The Sandstone Trail, a long-distance footpath stretching for 55 km from Whitchurch in the south, across the Cheshire Sandstone Ridge NCA, offering elevated views across the plain, before ending in Frodsham in the Mersey Valley.

Opportunities – Restore historic assets above ground. Protect assets below ground, by ensuring appropriate land management regimes, for example, protecting under permanent pasture.

Encourage collaboration between landscape partnerships and English Heritage to reinstate traditional land management of park lands and estate grounds, maintain vistas, manage woodland in keeping with their designed use ensuring a supply of dead wood and over-mature trees and reinstate native woodland on plantation ancient woodland sites.

Manage the impacts of recreation, providing alternative paths, appropriate for a range of abilities, away from eroded sites and sensitive habitats.

Manage appropriate, small-scale extraction of traditional building materials for the repair of vernacular buildings.

Manage forestry to provide access and recreation while maintaining the historic characteristics of the woodland and areas of tranquillity.

Opportunities exist to improve the interpretation of the area’s former and present day extractive sites, allowing visitors to understand and value these features.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Sense of history
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Recreation
• Tranquillity
• Sense of history
• Geodiversity

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Distinctive wetland landscape of meres and mosses
• River valleys Woodland

State – Statistics from CPRE show that the NCA has experienced a significant decline in tranquillity.

Undisturbed areas have decreased from 69 per cent in the 1960s to 44 per cent in 2007 with loss of tranquillity associated with increased traffic levels on the major roads of the NCA, including the M6, M54 and extensive network of A roads.

Nevertheless, the NCA offers the experience of wide-open spaces and enclosed woodland to visitors from the nearby conurbations.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – Despite the reduction to ‘undisturbed’ areas, the NCA is important in providing to the populations of the nearby conurbations the opportunity to experience the contrast between wind-swept landscape on the ridge tops to an enclosed feel in some of the valleys and sunken lanes and the wide, lush pastoral plain.

Extensive mosses, for example, Fenn’s, Whixall, Bettisfield, Wem and Cadney mosses offer wide- open wind-swept landscapes.

Opportunities – Retain areas of open landscape, resisting urban development in to undisturbed areas.

Promote the calming effect that contact with tranquil and sensory environments have on people’s health and wellbeing by protecting areas of the NCA where intrusion is low; sensitively plan any expansion to settlements and transport routes, taking into account visual impact, noise and light pollution, and using multifunctional green infrastructure to mitigate impacts while contributing positively to sustainable urban drainage systems, habitat networks and local landscape character.

Encourage the provision of improved access to woodland as part of woodland management to increase the opportunities to experience tranquillity.

Carefully assess plans to introduce urban features into urban fringe and rural villages and hamlets for example, unnecessary lighting, road improvements and signage thus protecting where possible, the tranquil character and dark night skies.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Tranquillity
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Sense of history
• Biodiversity
• Recreation

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Public rights of way and heritage trails
• Iron-age hill forts connected by the Sandstone Trail
• National Cycle Network
• National Nature Reserves
• Country parks
• Local Nature Reserves
• Historic parks and gardens
• Canals Jodrell Bank

State – The NCA contains a wealth of recreational assets.

There is an extensive network of rights of way including the Sandstone Trail and short sections of Wat’s Dyke Heritage Trail that have an iron-age origin.

There 35 Registered Parks and Gardens, some owned and run by the National Trust.

There are six National Nature Reserves; all but one, Mottey Meadows are related to the Meres and Mosses Ramsar and SAC sites.

Additional sites include, Seven Country Parks and fourteen Local Nature Reserves.

There is public access along the Shropshire Union, Llangollen and Trent and Mersey canals as well as access to some of the large meres such as Ellesmere and Cole mere and mosses throughout the NCA.

Jodrell Bank, the location of the Lovell radio telescope, dominates the open landscape near Goostrey in Cheshire. It is also the location of an arboretum and popular visitor centre.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – The NCA offers a host of recreational sites and trails that are close to large conurbations.

National Nature Reserves, Country Parks, Local Nature Reserves and visitor centres provide opportunities for visitors to experience the history and biodiversity that the NCA has to offer. This is both an opportunity  ‘to educate and increase physical activity’ and a challenge to manage visitor numbers and the impact they have on the environment, local infrastructure and tranquillity.

Jodrell Bank offers a different and relatively rare visitor experience of the study of astronomy and astrophysics. The 76-metre diameter radio telescope is located on the plain and is a local feature that can be seen from a considerable distance.

There are opportunities to provide opportunities for recreation and outdoor education close to where people live allowing local communities to enjoy their environment, take action to improve it and to benefit from the health and social rewards it affords them.

Opportunities – Seek to manage the impact of increased visitor numbers on sites by ensuring that paths are adequately signposted and surfaced to prevent erosion and protect sensitive habitats.

Manage sustainably, the demand for water and energy resources and provide recycling facilities at visitor centres, to minimise the impact on the environment and to raise awareness.

Support initiatives by the Forestry Commission to increase the recreational resource at Delamere.

Increase the number of circular, well-surfaced, routes suitable for all age ranges and physical abilities. Promote the use of the existing network of rights of way within the NCA and its links with the National Cycle Network and Sandstone Trail.

Support farms to diversify into sustainable short and long stay accommodation especially adjacent to public rights of way.

The maturing woodland resource of The Mersey Forest provides significant opportunities for access and recreation.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Recreation
• Sense of history
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Geodiversity

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Designated sites: SAC, Ramsar, SSSI, local sites
• Priority habitats and species:
• Meres and Mosses
• Wetland habitat
• Rivers
• Upland heathland
• Lowland meadow
• Flood plain grazing marsh
• Lowland grassland
• Woodland Ponds
• Country parks, Local Nature Reserves and local greenspace
• Hedgerows

State – There are 83 SSSI either wholly or partly within the NCA, totalling one per-cent of the NCA area. Numerous lakes (‘meres’) throughout the NCA and Europe’s greatest concentration of ponds.

Three per cent of the NCA area is priority habitat, including significant areas of wet woodland, flood plain grazing marsh and fens. Extensive flood plain grazing marsh habitats support regionally important populations of breeding waders, for example, lapwing, snipe and curlew in areas such as Baggy Moor, Weald Moor and Doxey Marshes. Other priority habitats include raised bog, lowland grassland, and lowland mixed beech and yew woodland.

There are eight internationally designated sites in the NCA – five SAC and three Ramsar sites totalling approximately 0.4 per cent of the NCA area.

The meres and mosses form the largest and most ecologically diverse cluster of natural wetlands in lowland England comprising a geographically discrete series of nationally important lowland open water and peatland sites designated as SSSI and SAC. The finest examples are considered to be of international importance (Ramsar). These include one of the largest and most southerly raised bogs in the UK – Fenn’s, Whixall, Bettisfield, Wem & Cadney Mosses, which supports over 1,700 invertebrate species and 29 nationally rare species, for example, Desmoulin’s whorl snail.

The finest sites have developed a mature schwingmoor comprising floating bog mosses Sphagnum spp often with common cotton grass and cranberry.

Open water provides habitats for locally and nationally rare species of aquatic plants, for example, planktonic algae, stands of shoreweed, narrow small-reed and Cole Mere is the only English site for least water lily. Some meres support a diverse fish population, in particular pike and bream, and large numbers of wintering and breeding wildfowl for example, Aqualate Mere hosts up to 3,000 overwintering ducks, including mallard, teal, wigeon, pochard, tufted duck, goldeneye, gadwall and wintering shoveler.

The mosaic of open water and peatland habitats together with fringing heathland and woodland host an outstanding diversity of invertebrates including damselflies and dragonflies, for example, the nationally rare white-faced dragonfly and a diversity of beetles and spiders including a number of nationally rare species.

Drier areas which typically support heathland relics, areas of purple moor-grass and open semi-natural woodland are important for Lepidoptera, for example the argent and sable moth and small pearl-bordered fritillary. Lowland heathland at Prees Heath SSSI hosts the nationally scarce silver-studded blue butterfly.

Main beneficiary – International

Analysis – Persistent degradation of water quality, increased drainage and inappropriate management has degraded a number of meres and mosses.

Alternative land uses have isolated core sites and mature trees shade-out marginal vegetation. 81 per cent of recorded rare plants have become extinct across 13 key sites and public awareness and understanding of their value is low.

The NCA has ten main rivers that support riparian and wetland habitats that have specific water chemistry that requires careful management and protection from diffuse pollution and falling water levels. The River Dee SAC is designated for its vegetation communities and populations of Atlantic salmon, lamprey species, bullhead and otter.

Ancient woodland and broadleaved mixed woodland requires management to maintain their structural integrity and species diversity.

Priority upland heathland and lowland meadows require management to maintain their condition and require protection from further fragmentation.

Landscape-scale partnerships are beginning to target and co-ordinate action for the preservation of priority habitats and protection of priority species of the meres and mosses.

Partnership working at a landscape scale can begin to find sustainable solutions to the management of the NCA’s biodiversity.

Opportunities – Restore and manage core nature conservation sites. For example, SAC, Ramsar, SSSI, NNRs, LNRs and Local Sites network to improve their condition and connectivity; enhance landscape character and create a more coherent and more resilient habitat network, while providing opportunities for volunteering, education and community involvement.

With landscape-scale partnerships, restore and manage core nature conservation sites by working in collaboration to improve the quality of water, by finding solutions to reduce the rate of sedimentation that also protects the soil resource.

Seek ways to reduce the levels of nutrients and pesticides entering watercourses and groundwater.

With landscape scale partnerships, promote opportunities for landowners and local communities to develop management plans and implement these with the help of volunteers. This will also raise awareness to the importance of these sites.

Encourage the retention of in-field ponds and where practicable, create more to improve the permeability of the landscape for aquatic species.

Encourage the uptake of techniques promoted through CSF and other initiatives, to maintain the natural soil profile and protect the local hydrology. Address issues of water abstraction and diffuse pollution to benefit biodiversity and water quality, especially where there are sensitive habitats.

Use country parks, Local Nature Reserves and local green spaces for opportunities for volunteering and training to increase the surveillance of key habitats and species by surveying to monitor the distribution and population sizes of species as an indicator of habitat quality.

Encourage local communities to take part in site based conservation activities and in the future be involved in the planning and management of these sites.

Encourage the inclusion of greenspace in new developments to provide opportunities for local communities to engage with nature and foster community spirit, while benefiting biodiversity.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Biodiversity
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Sense of history
• Regulating soil erosion
• Regulating water flow
• Regulating water quality
• Regulating soil quality
• Geodiversity

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Designated sites: SSSI and local geological sites
• Natural rock outcrops
• Glacial and present-day geomorphological processes
• Geological exposures created by road, rail and canalcuttings
• Traditional local building stone
• Minerals and extractive industries

State – There are a significant number of geological SSSI (15) and 97 Local Geological Sites.

The Triassic outcrops of the ridges and hills provide a rare glimpse of exposed solid rock, enabling the depositional environment to be interpreted, thus contributing to the understanding of climate during the Triassic Period.

The interpretation of glacial deposits has contributed to our understanding of climate circa 20,000 years ago and present-day landscapes, for example, the formation of peat mosses provides a well-documented pollen record and opportunities for radiocarbon dating.

One of the best examples of an esker system in England occurs at Aqualate Mere, which provides a rare example in the Midlands of an esker system formed by glacial meltwaters during the late Devensian glaciation. The site is also significant in demonstrating the close association of the esker with fan deposits formed in a proglacial lake, a nationally rare group of landforms.

The present day complex geomorphology of the rivers Dane, Dee, and Severn are also contributing to our understanding of modern fluvial processes – erosion and deposition.

Road, rail and canal cuttings also provide valuable exposures, for example, Tyrley Canal Cutting SSSI.

Main beneficiary – National

Analysis – The NCA contains nationally important geological SSSI, both natural outcrops and man-made cuttings that require the regular removal of scrub and woodland management to maintain the access, visibility and integrity of the sites.

Improved and increased interpretation can raise awareness and promote a better understanding of the riverine environments and geomorphology. For example, The River Dane SSSI is designated for its meander belt. The river is known to have reverted to former routes over a 70-year cycle. The course of the River Severn was modified by the last ice sheet, diverting its courses from the developing Dee Estuary to its present course draining to the Bristol Channel. A better understanding of natural processes can assist with land use planning.

The NCA has a long history of extractive industries and exemplifies the link between geology, the development of industries and biodiversity. For example, the extraction of salt can be traced back to the Roman period. Continued extraction by underground solution pumping has led to subsidence flashes that now support valuable habitats. Some are saline supporting coastal communities.

The legacy of surface extraction of silica sand has left a mosaic of wetland habitats and areas for recreation.

Active sandstone quarries, for example, Grinshill have yielded fossil reptiles from the Lower Triassic Period, contributing to our knowledge of Triassic environments.

Opportunities – Work in partnerships to enhance the condition of designated sites and manage former extraction sites and natural exposures, for the range of mutually beneficial interests including geodiversity, biodiversity, volunteering and educational purposes.

Work in partnership to further the objectives and aspirations of the Local Geodiversity Action Plan that offer opportunities for volunteering and community engagement.

Improve access and interpretation of past geomorphic activity at Local Sites and present-day geomorphic activity associated with the rivers Dane and Severn.

Promote sensitive planning and design of quarries to replicate some of the features lost to the development and reinforce the character of the surrounding landscape. Such sites may provide new opportunities for public access and enjoyment.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Geodiversity
• Biodiversity
• Regulating soil quality
• Recreation
• Sense of history
• Sense of place/inspiration