142 - Somerset Levels and Moors : Analysis: Ecosystem Services

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Fertile soils and high water levels producing lush and plentiful vegetation
• Dairy products
• Beef
• Lamb

State – Eighty-six per cent of the area is under pasture or is uncropped. This supports the principal food producing activity; livestock farming. Almost two-thirds of farms are engaged in livestock farming, mainly dairy and beef production.

Maize is widely grown as a winter feed crop for livestock supplementing hay and silage crops.

Lamb, and particularly salt marsh lamb reared in the west, is a notable output from the area.

The soils are fertile and versatile; 57 and 16 per cent Grade 3 and Grade 2 agricultural soils respectively.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – The fertile soils, high water levels and a mild climate are conducive to the growth of lush summer vegetation and pasture and subsequent livestock production; the longstanding land use extending back to the Neolithic period. The balance between high water levels and catastrophic flooding is delicate and increasing heavy and often unseasonal rainfall jeopardises that balance.

The period 2000 to 2009 saw a slight rise in the total numbers of livestock found across the area, but a dramatic reduction by one third, in the number of dairy farms. A consolidation and amalgamation of small farms has taken place. As a result dairy yields have remained constant or risen.

The area remains highly productive, but margins between supplementary feed costs – hay, silage and maize – affected by flooding events, and returns on produce challenge the current balance. As a result, the trend to consolidate activity and move to more intensive management regimes may continue.

Ensuring appropriate and beneficial soil and nutrient management, avoiding sedimentation and diffuse pollution is minimised, will be essential both for the maintenance of food production levels and other services, notably soil quality, water quality, biodiversity and buried archaeology. Particular consideration should be given to the management of farmed areas with peat soils and soils with high carbon content for their ongoing contribution to carbon storage and capture.

Opportunities – Work with farmers and land managers to maintain a balance between profitability and the long-term viability of food production levels and the protection and enhancement of the natural and historic environment.

Work with the farming community to ensure good soil and nutrient management, thereby securing a sustainable future for farming, protecting environmental features within the Levels and Moors, and supporting the supply of other ecosystem services.

Support sustainable expansion of food production; develop and realise opportunities for diversification and high-value local and specialist products which strengthen the sense of place within the Levels and Moors.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

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

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Pollards and withy beds
• Small farm woods

State – Some commercial material is harvested from pollard willows and withy beds, mainly for basket weaving and charcoal burning.

Existing woodland coverage is very low at only 1 per cent. Little or none of the timber in the area is managed for commercial timber production.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – A wetland landscape not conducive to the growing of trees for commercial timber production. There remains a commercial interest in the production of pollard and coppice material, which has the potential to be expanded.

Most woodland occurs around the periphery of the area and is often dominated by willows, alder and birch with some oak and ash, and does not produce commercially viable material.

Current land use and regular flooding significantly restrict the potential for expansion of commercial timber production.

Opportunities – There is little opportunity for timber provision from this area.

Small-scale expansion of local woodland in appropriate locations would support increased biodiversity, reinforce landscape character around the fringes of the area, reduce rates of water flow and sedimentation from adjacent hills and potentially provide a local source of low-grade timber.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Timber provision
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Regulating water flow
• Regulating soil erosion

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Main rivers and drains flowing through the area transporting water received on surrounding hills
• Cheddar Reservoir

State – The main rivers in the area are the Axe and Brue draining the central levels, the Tone and Parrett the southern levels and the Kenn and Congresbury Yeo the northern levels, as well as the Huntspill and King’s Sedgemoor Drains and a series of smaller interconnecting drains, rhynes and ditches.

Cheddar Reservoir, managed by Bristol Water, is fed by springs rising off the Mendip Hills. It has a 614,000 cubic metre capacity and supplies the surrounding areas, with some water also pumped to supply Bristol.

The main abstractions within the area are for public water supply; other abstractions are for industry and agriculture.

In certain stretches of the Tone, there are a number of abstractions that are not licensed because of exemptions under the Water Resources Act 1991; these feed Stanmoor and part of North Moor (The Parrett Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy, Environment Agency, 2006), (The Tone Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy, Environment Agency).

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – All of the river catchments are considered to have water available for abstraction, apart from some sections of the Congresbury Yeo that are over licensed (Brue, Axe and North Somerset stream Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy).

However maintaining the abundance of water across the area is also fundamental to its character, nature and function. Abstraction licences are still granted but on a case by case basis and often have conditions that limit or stop abstraction when river flow is low. In areas that have plenty of water available restrictions may not be strictly applied.

The Congresbury Yeo and Cheddar Yeo are heavily influenced by abstraction into the Cheddar and Blagdon reservoirs (Blagdon is outside the NCA but affects downstream flows in the NCA). Both rivers are over licensed and over abstracted significantly influencing future abstraction potential.

For much of the year there are excesses of water available in this area.

Periods of drought may become increasingly common and prolonged placing new stresses on water resources. Further research into the likely impacts and effects of drought are needed. This should include extending the understanding of the inter-relations between available water, food production, habitat management, preservation of peat and the conservation of buried archaeology.

Opportunities – Seek opportunities to further increase areas of semi-natural habitats, especially flood plain grazing marsh to improve water infiltration and targeted water storage.

Encourage the restoration and expansion of fen to increase water storage capacity.

Work with Internal Drainage Boards, landowners and managers to maintain watercourses and control structures to allow water table levels to be maintained so as to best protect fodder crops, hay and silage leys while contributing to habitat management for waders, wetland and farmland birds, enhancing plant and invertebrate diversity and protecting buried archaeological deposits.

Identify and support initiatives that explore and further information about and understanding of the impacts of drought and the relationship to other ecosystem services.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

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

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Farm orchards

State – Many villages and farmsteads retain small traditional orchards preserving a number of locally important apple varieties, particularly local cider varieties.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Although often severely decayed and containing only senescent trees, numerous farm orchards are found throughout the area. Cider varieties are of particular note and have a
longstanding association with the area; traditionally agricultural workers in the area received part of their wages in cider.

It is important to maintain the genetic diversity of orchard fruit varieties in order to safeguard future food and drink provision, and afford increased resilience to climate change and disease.

Opportunities – Raise awareness of local varieties and link owners of orchards with local fruit and cider producers and suppliers.

Encourage regeneration of existing orchards and new planting with local varieties.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Genetic diversity
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Sense of history
• Biodiversity

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Soils in combination with high water levels
• Woodland

State – Versatile fertile soils, a moderate climate and high water levels promote vigorous vegetative growth make the area suitable for biomass production in the form of either miscanthus or short rotation coppice. Competing demands for grass for livestock production, nature conservation and archaeological deposits has limited up-take of initiatives.

Existing woodlands in traditional management yields small volumes of wood fuel for local supply.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis -Yield maps indicate that the majority of the area has the potential for a medium yield of short rotation coppice and a high yield of miscanthus. Opportunities vary throughout the area and will be significantly limited by archaeological and biodiversity interests as well as water level management, food provision and existing land use.

Reed cut from the many nature reserves and potentially rushes from wet grassland may provide a source of material for biofuels.

Pollard arisings provide a local source of wood fuel.

Opportunities – Work with the farming community to identify suitable locations for the increase in net yield of miscanthus and short rotation coppice, avoiding locations that would be contrary to local landscape character, likely to impact on archaeological deposits or be in conflict with nature conservation opportunities.

Explore initiatives that make use of arisings from the management of nature reserves, particularly rushes and reeds, as sources of biomass and biofuels.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Biomass energy
• Climate regulation
• Water availability
• Regulating water flow

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Peat soils
• Estuaries

State – There is high carbon storage in this NCA. The central and western area has soils with a carbon content of up to 10 per cent while in the north-east soil carbon content is up to 20 per cent and areas in the south-east have a soil carbon content of between 20 and 50 per cent.

Areas of grazing marsh, mud flats and estuarine silts and muds fringing Bridgwater Bay and notably around the Parrett estuary.

Main beneficiary – National

Analysis – There are peaty soils high in stored CO2, including fen peat soils and raised bog soils, formed by the once extensive lowland raised bogs of the Moors and the Brue Valley. Much of this area has been previously exploited by commercial peat extraction and some peat extraction still continues under extant permissions.

Soils with a naturally high groundwater and a peaty surface cover 23 per cent of the NCA and there are high levels of organic material in the soils of the Levels including the loamy and clayey soils of coastal flats with naturally high groundwater covering a further 37 per cent of the area. In addition, the loamy and clayey flood plain soils with naturally high groundwater, 17 per cent of the area, may be peaty at depth or include small areas of peaty soils.

These high levels of soil carbon content are likely to be further elevated in areas under the wetland habitats that cover 69 per cent, (more than 45,000 ha) of the NCA including extensive areas of coastal and flood plain grazing marsh, fen, areas of long-established permanent pasture and estuarine muds and silts where carbon sequestration is an ongoing process.

All these high carbon soils, that together cover over 75 per cent of the NCA, are very important to conserve because of the role they play in carbon sequestration and storage. Where cultivated, peat soils suffer from shrinkage and oxidation, with loss of CO2 to the atmosphere; however, where undrained or saturated long-term there may be production of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Across the remainder of the NCA, the predominantly mineral soils are low in soil carbon, although there is potential to increase soil carbon sequestration and storage through the addition of organic matter.

Opportunities – Restore and reconnect peatland and wetland habitats, restoring hydrological integrity where necessary and thereby protecting peat from desiccation and oxidisation, and ensure that cultivation of peat soils is minimised where possible. Realise opportunities to further protect and expand areas of flood plain and coastal grazing marsh, reedbeds, salt marsh and mudflats.

Work with landowners, farmers and the Internal Drainage Boards to ensure that groundwater levels are maintained at a level that prevents the desiccation and subsequent oxidisation of peat soils. Ensure discrete hydrological units can function effectively.

Work with farmers and land managers to ensure best practice in soil management, and particularly peat soils, to improve structure, quality and carbon content. This may be achieved through actions such as minimising or ceasing cultivation, using low pressure machinery, and managing stock levels and movement.

Ensure that realignment initiatives are managed to their full potential to develop into habitats that sequester and store carbon, benefit biodiversity interest and enhance the landscape of the coast and estuaries. Support estuarine management measures that result in the maintenance and accretion of tidal salt marsh with its high carbon sequestration rates and low methane emissions.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

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

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Sand dunes, salt marsh, mudflats and estuaries
• ‘Hard’ sea defences and engineered banks
• Geomorphological processes

State – Backed by low-lying land, often at, or in spring, below sea level, coastal defence and management of coastal erosion are imperative. The policies and identified actions of the shoreline management plans )North Devon and Somerset Shoreline Management Plan, Environment Agency, 2010) and (Seven Estuary Shoreline Management Plan, Environment Agency, 2000) along many sections of the coast are to provide sustainable protection against flood risk to the Somerset Levels and Moors, working with natural processes as far as possible and allowing the area to evolve naturally in the long term. The resultant management approach is a complex picture of managed realignment, ‘hold the line’ and no active intervention.

The Severn Estuary Partnership has identified policy recommendations and proposals for the management of the estuary, including the coastal stretches in this area. (Strategy for the Severn Estuary, Seven Estuary Partnership, 2001).

Most of the coastal part of the area is designated for its importance to nature conservation; Severn Estuary Ramsar site, Special Protection Area and Special Area of Conservation and Bridgwater Bay National Nature Reserve.

Sections of the coast, particularly between Burnham-on-Sea and Brean Down and at Weston-super-Mare, are widely used for leisure and amenity.

Main beneficiary – National

Analysis – The coastline of the area is complex and subject to many pressures and issues. Wave energy and tidal range place significant pressures on the coastline in this area. Tidal range in the Bristol Channel is classified as macromareal (greater than 4 m range) and is the second highest in the world; occasionally exceeding 9 m height. Wave action can also be extreme, driven by westerly winds and funnelled into the Bristol Channel from the Atlantic.

Coastal erosion is regulated through a complex series of natural and engineered processes and structures. Natural formations, particularly dunes, salt marsh and mudflats, fed by sediment from the rivers Parrett, Wye, Avon and Severn, help to absorb wave and tidal energy. Seabanks and ‘rock armour’ are used to defend the most vulnerable and low-lying stretches of the coast.

In May 2012 the Environment Agency began construction work to create one of the UK’s largest new reserves for wildlife. Over 400 ha of the Steart peninsula will be turned into wildlife-rich habitats including salt marsh and freshwater wetland. The scheme will also provide better protection against flooding for Steart village and Steart Drove.

Sand dunes are characteristically prone to drought and can become unstable with disturbance, particularly along paths and tracks, increasing the potential for ‘blow-outs’ during strong winds; part of the natural succession and process of sand dunes. The overall extent and rate of erosion is often dependent on the extent of vegetation cover.

Much of the coast is a popular tourist destination, the beaches widely used for leisure and recreation and inland areas occupied by caravan and holiday facilities. This increases the pressure on maintaining coastal defences and beaches.

Opportunities – Work in partnership to study and better understand the sediment dynamics and geomorphology of the Bristol Channel and Parrett estuary in order to continue to plan for the most effective and beneficial development of natural coastal defences where managed realignment and no active intervention is proposed.

Identify and communicate effectively flood risk scenarios resulting from different coastal change models to inform risk and asset management strategies and planning.

Realise benefits for habitat expansion and species resulting from coastal management and realignment initiatives in line with management objectives for the SAC, SPA and Ramsar designations.

Develop beach management strategies that adequately address flood risk while recognising the leisure and amenity uses of the coastal strip.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Regulating coastal erosion
• Biodiversity
• Geodiversity
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Regulating water flow
• Regulating soil erosion
• Recreation

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Extensive areas of semi natural habitat including reedbeds, open waterbodies, fen and marsh.
• Rivers, ditches and rhynes.

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 – National.

Analysis – Significant problems of phosphate and nitrate pollution and sedimentation have been identified in most watercourses across the area, mainly associated with agriculture and exacerbated by the connectivity of the internal drainage system. This can be exacerbated in drought conditions when low water levels increase concentrations and biological oxygen demand.

Further negative impacts and effects arise from illegal septic tank discharges, poorly maintained package treatment plants, trade discharges and poorly managed sewage treatment works.

Similarly, prolonged summer flooding, combining high temperatures and large quantities of decaying vegetation, can result in floodwater with high nutrient and low oxygen levels that cannot be returned to main watercourse without high risk to fish populations and overall water quality.

Other threats to water quality include; sedimentation as a result of erosion and damage to the soils both in and outside of the area; diffuse water pollution from agriculture, particularly run-off of manure, fertiliser, poor stock management infrastructure and chemicals; soil erosion due to overgrazing and excessive stock access to watercourses resulting in severe
bankside erosion.

The Upper Tone and Upper Parrett feed SSSI such as Curry Moor and Hay Moor as well as Southlake and King Sedgemoor carrying sediment and nutrients into these nationally important habitats.

Water and water quality is intrinsically linked to the quality, type, range and importance of habitats and species found across the area.

Watercourses of all sizes, throughout the area are noted for their important fish populations, and aquatic flora and fauna. Eels are of particular importance within the area and also have strong cultural associations.

Opportunities – Work with farmers and landowners to establish and maintain best practice in water quality management including; grazing regimes and stocking rates; applications of organic matter and fertilizer; maintenance of farm infrastructure; and cultivation and cropping activity.

Work with farmers and landowners to identify crops and cropping regimes which require lower applications of fertiliser and pesticide, to help protect watercourses from chemical run-off. Promote the use of buffer strips to watercourses, and the creation of riparian semi-natural habitat, supported through agri-environment schemes.

Promote improvements in farm infrastructure and waste management.

Work with the local community and local businesses to identify and improve problematic sewage and trade discharges. Work with the relevant water companies to assess potential nutrient impact from sewage treatment works. Similarly, work with the peat industry to assess and address the impacts and effects arising from peat workings and their de-watering activities.

Encourage positive management of vegetation along ditches and rhynes that maintains water flow, but helps trap sediments and nutrients and manage and continue to introduce reedbeds and other wetland habitats, that help to filter water.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

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

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Flood banks, levees, water control infrastructure, including sluices and pumps
• Rivers, drains, ditches and rhynes
• Flood plain and coastal grazing marsh over permeable soils
• Moors

State – There is considerable and extensive flood risk across most of the Somerset Levels and Moors. Much of the history of the area is intrinsically linked to flooding and the management of water levels. The area, once part of the Severn estuary, is now the largest area of lowland wet grassland and flood plain remaining in England. The area forms the flood plain of eight major rivers or drains. The river catchment systems of the surrounding NCAs influence water flows within the area; the catchment outside of the NCA is four times the size of the NCA. Rivers drain from the Mendips, Quantocks and Blackdown Hills through low lying levels, coastal plains and moors to the Severn estuary.

Gradients to drain water within the NCA are very limited and the ground level is lower than the high spring tides in the Severn estuary (see also ‘regulating coastal erosion’). Management of flooding is often dependent on pumped drainage.

Floodwater storage across the area during periods of high or prolonged rainfall is a natural process and an essential part of; the flood defence system to prevent the flooding of urban areas, and; the maintenance of raised water levels necessary to support nature conservation interests. Uncontrolled flooding causes damage to property and agricultural interests.

Main beneficiary – National

Analysis – The river network and drainage systems across the Levels and Moors have been artificially modified over several centuries to improve drainage and increase the flow of water to the sea. Many rivers, drains and embanked channels are unable to contain fluvial floodwaters leading to extensive flooding across most of the NCA, often exacerbated by frequent high tidal conditions.

In the south-east of the NCA, steep uplands, the Blackdown Hills, combined with impermeable geology and soil conditions result in rapid run-off following rainfall leading to flooding of the clay lowlands. In the north-east the response to rainfall events is slower as the surrounding permeable limestone hills, the Mendips and Poldens absorb the water which subsequently appears as increased spring line flows.

Future growth of Taunton, Bridgwater and Weston-super-Mare could place further pressure on the flood plain to accommodate further flood alleviation measures.

Future Environment Agency policies include a working with others to store water or manage run-off in locations that provide overall flood risk reduction or environmental benefits and providing advice on adaptive farming techniques in flood plains. By redistributing water within the area, some areas with limited assets at risk will see more flooding while other areas will see a reduction in frequency and length of flooding (Parrett Catchment Flood Management Plan, Environment Agency, 2009), (North and Mid Somerset Flood Management Plan, Environment Agency 2009).

Summer flooding results in particular and specific problems of water quality as rotting, lush vegetation significantly reduces the oxygen content in water threatening fish species in main watercourses if floodwater is returned in too large quantities. Breeding waders, some farmland birds and invertebrates, and soil fauna and structure can suffer significant losses or be impacted as a result of prolonged summer flooding, further impacting on overall soil quality and ecological integrity.

Opportunities – Work with landowners, farmers, the Internal Drainage Boards, statutory agencies and conservation bodies to ensure the complex network of flood management and hydrological infrastructure and drainage, from field gutters through rhynes, ditches and drains to major rivers, sluices spillways and pumps, function effectively to best manage the flow of water across the landscape. Ensuring floodwater is accommodated in areas where there is minimal impact on food production and maximum benefit for biodiversity is essential.

Work with key partners and landowners to identify the most suitable sites for flood storage in different seasonal scenarios.

Optimise design and implementation of future flood storage areas to create new wetland habitats, such as flood plain grazing marsh, and creating links where appropriate and where no risk of increasing the range of non-native invasive species is likely, within existing semi-natural habitats.

Manage all waterbodies, watercourses and flood risk areas to increase structural and habitat diversity across the landscape, which will help to retain floodwater more effectively in different seasonal scenarios and, where possible provide refuges for species vulnerable to inundation events.

Encourage agricultural practices that build up organic matter, particularly in clay soils, to reduce the risk of soil compaction and improve water infiltration

Principal services offered by opportunities –

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

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Soil types
• Geomorphological processes
• Geodiversity
• Semi-natural habitats
• High groundwater levels

State – There are 10 main soilscape types within the NCA the most significant being; loamy and clayey soils of the coastal flats with naturally high groundwater (37 per cent); loamy and clayey flood plain soils with naturally high groundwater (17 per cent); fen peat soils (11 per cent); slightly acid loamy and clayey soils with impeded drainage (10 per cent); loamy and sandy soils with naturally high groundwater and a peaty surface (8 per cent).

Deep peat within this area also contains important palaeogeographical records and internationally important archaeology.

Main beneficiary – National

Analysis – The loamy and clayey soils of coastal flats with naturally high groundwater (37 per cent) have high arable potential, but this is dependent on the continued ability to pump drain and protect the soils from sea flooding and saline intrusion. Locally some soils are saline and at risk of structural damage where drained. These soils are increasingly under threat of loss from sea level rise, although they also serve to protect other inland soils from inundation. Where there is a high silt and fine sand content compaction and, or capping may be
an issue which may be reduced by increasing soil organic matter content.

The loamy and clayey flood plain soils with naturally high groundwater (17 per cent) have flood storage potential, but wetness and flood risk means they tend to have a low bearing strength and are therefore at increased risk of compaction from mechanised operations, stock grazing and recreational use in wetter conditions. These soils may benefit, especially where under arable cropping, from increased levels of organic matter through management interventions. Where there are pockets of peat soils these are at risk of drying out and oxidation. Diffuse pollution from these soils, for example from applied manures and very fine sediments, is possible following local flooding.

The fen peat soils (11 per cent) are at high risk of peat loss through wastage, with peaty layers becoming thinner over underlying mineral layers, reducing long- term agricultural value. In some locations mineral material is within plough depth. Where over marine alluvium, drained soils may be extremely acid impacting on land use and management. Where drained, sporadic iron rich layers ‘drummy layers’ are difficult to wet.

Slightly acid loamy and clayey soils with impeded drainage (10 per cent) are easily poached by livestock and compacted by machinery when the soil is wet. Weak topsoil structures can easily be damaged. Careful timing of activities is required to reduce the likelihood of soil compaction.

Soil quality and particularly the quality and quantity of soil fauna is intrinsically linked to the internationally important variety and numbers of waders and wetland birds overwintering and breeding across the area.

Opportunities – Work with farmers and landowners to establish and maintain best practice in soils management including; grazing regimes and stocking rates; applications of organic matter and fertilizer; and cultivation and cropping activity.

Work with landowners, the Internal Drainage Board and others to maintain high water levels in areas with soils with high peat content to avoid desiccation and oxidisation.

Encourage restoration of and an expansion in the area of permanent pasture.

Seek and realise opportunities to improve farm infrastructure, particularly the location of feeders and drinkers, and the use of droves and farm tracks, to minimise localised compaction and, or poaching.

Improve levels of organic matter in soils subject to prolonged flooding to improve resilience and recovery. Also, work flexibly and responsively with landowners and farmers to manage the recovery of soils following long periods of flooding.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Regulating soil quality
• Regulating soil erosion
• Regulating water quality
• Regulating coastal erosion
• Food provision
• Water availability
• Sense of history
• Biodiversity
• Geodiversity

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Soil types
• High groundwater levels
• Good soil management
• Semi-natural habitats

State – Reflecting the vulnerability of the soils, much of the area falls within two of Defra’s Catchment Sensitive Farming initiatives; the Somerset Levels and Moors Priority Catchment and the North Somerset Moors Priority Catchment (Defra priority catchments identified under the England Catchment Sensitive Farming Delivery Initiative, DEFRA).

Over 40 per cent of the soils covering this area are at some risk of erosion.

Main beneficiary – Regional

Analysis – In both priority catchments the primary concern is the down-washing of sediments from higher in the catchments of the rivers that feed the Somerset Levels and Moors, from outside of the area, leading to the sedimentation of important habitats within the area, such as at Southlake, King’s Sedgemoor and West Sedgemoor SSSI fed by the Parrett. Nevertheless, the vulnerability of the soils of the Levels and Moors is also a concern.

The clayey soils with impeded drainage and base-rich soils, covering 19 per cent of the area, are easily compacted by machinery and livestock, especially during wet conditions, leading to capping and slaking.

The soils with peaty topsoil, covering 23 per cent of the area, are at risk of water erosion where cultivated and exposed to floodwater and wind erosion if remaining exposed and allowed to dry out. In addition, where drained and cultivated there is a loss of peat through shrinkage and oxidation.

The slowly permeable soils and soils with naturally high groundwater in flood plains and coastal flats, together covering 55 per cent of the area, are not generally prone to soil erosion.

Opportunities – Working with farmers and land managers to apply the principles of good soil management as advocated by initiatives such as Catchment Sensitive Farming.

Work with farmers, land managers, the Internal Drainage Boards and others to ensure ground water levels are maintained in areas with soils with high peat content in order to prevent drying out and subsequent oxidisation. Such measures may include; the use of shallow cultivation techniques; maintenance of gutters, ditches and rhynes, and associated control structures; reinstatement of permanent pasture and introduction of grassland margins to arable fields.

Encourage the use of green manure crops, such as nitrogen-fixing legumes, within arable systems to replace nutrients and bind soil, winter stubble options in agri-environmental agreements, and limiting livestock access to watercourses in locations particularly prone to erosion.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Regulating soil erosion
• Regulating soil quality
• Regulating water quality
• Biodiversity
• Sense of history

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Floristically-rich ditches and rhynes
• Remnant traditional orchards

State – An extensive network of ditches, rhynes and drains form the boundaries between fields and often support rich floristic diversity attractive to pollinating invertebrates.

Many villages and farmsteads across the area retain remnant or restored traditional orchards providing islands of nectar source attractive to pollinating insects.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Sustainable and sympathetic management of watercourses to maintain networks and corridors of floristic diversity will provide both sources of nectar and refuges and movement corridors for pollinating invertebrates.

Farm orchards have played an important part in the culture and historical development of the area; however, many continue to deteriorate and decline in condition and extent. Some initiatives have been established to encourage the reinstatement and conservation of traditional orchards; the South Somerset Orchards Project.

Sympathetic management of roadside verges can generate an important connected network of nectar source and movement corridors, complimentary to the network of watercourses and also reinforce the local identity and character of the area.

Opportunities – Support the introduction of nectar and forage mixes in arable land and also the development of species-rich grasslands and leys.

Maintain and enhance the floristic diversity associated with watercourse where possible, to increase the range of flowering plants, and increase the area and range of habitat mosaics making connections between existing sites that are attractive to pollinators.

Encourage sympathetic management of sites beneficial to pollinators, including appropriate management of roadside verges and banksides.

Encourage the protection and diversification of farm orchards through re-introduction of management, which will provide further nectar sources and improve insect diversity.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Pollination
• Food provision
• Biodiversity
• Sense of place/inspiration

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Extensive network of watercourses and waterbodies
• Semi-natural habitats within the farmed environment

State – The extensive network of semi-natural habitats, particularly the many drains, ditches, rhynes, open waterbodies and grazing marsh, is interspersed across the farmed landscape.

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – The semi-natural habitats within this area support large numbers of predatory invertebrates, wetland and farmland birds. The integration of particularly the network of waterbodies within the agricultural landscape potentially contributes to the regulation of food crop pest species by bring predators into closer proximity.

Opportunities – Work with farmers and land managers to enhance the network of semi-natural habitats throughout the agricultural landscape so they provide habitat and movement corridors for predator species to bring them within close proximity of main food producing areas.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Pest regulation
• Food provision
• Biodiversity
• Sense of place/inspiration

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Level landform with occasionally long, uninterrupted views
• Water
• Wide expanse of coast and Bridgwater Bay
• Abundance of wildlife
• Wet pastoral grassland and flood plain
• Pollard willows and withy beds
• Rich physical and cultural heritage
• Simple, austere and functional vernacular architecture

State – The level, sparsely populated land form can result in long, uncluttered views. The contrasts between the peat moors, clay levels, ‘burtles’ (inland clay ‘islands’), surrounding hills, and coastline of storm gravel beaches, sand dunes and mudflats are often subtle, but contribute to a complexity and intricacy that helps to define the place.

Water and the management of water is ever present in; the complex, chequer-board pattern of drainage through ditches, rhynes, drains and rivers; openwater bodies in former peat workings; Bridgwater Bay; and extensive, often long-standing areas of floodwater.

Wildlife is abundant and is recognised and protected in internationally and nationally designated sites; more than an eighth of the area is subject to some form of nature conservation designation. Large flocks of waders, wetland birds and starlings are associated with the area as are many invertebrates, particularly dragonflies, and fish, notably eel.

The largest remaining are a of floodplain and coastal grazing marsh in Britain, resulting in a productive, pastoral farmed landscape.

A wealth of visible and below ground heritage assets and a clear expression of human occupation, management and manipulation of the landscape over millennia.

Simple, austere buildings in brick and Blue Lias limestone with slate, plain clay or pantile roofs as solitary  farmsteads or simple, often linear villages.

Part of the area, the Avalon Marshes, is closely associated with the legends of King Arthur.

Main beneficiary – National

Analysis – Pressure for change is most notable along the corridor of the M5 motorway and in places along the coast; for infrastructure and distribution, and tourism facilities respectively. Housing development around Bridgwater, Weston-super-Mare and other larger settlements is also affecting a degree of change in the character of the area.

The most distinctive characteristics of the landscape remain as a continuing challenge between water and land. Periods of prolonged flooding can test the agricultural viability of the landscape and bring about changes to the species and habitat composition of the area. Likewise, drought may also bring about noticeable change to the character and culture of the area. What persists is a fine balance between the lush, productive pastoral farmed landscape and the complex wildlife within it and the forces of nature and in particular the presence and absence of water.

The landscape of the Levels and Moors has and continues to provide inspiration for many people, particularly as a place steeped in history, with a wealth of wildlife and peaceful undisturbed places.

Basketry and willow weaving remains both a commercial and artistic pursuit intrinsically connected with this area.

Opportunities – Identifying, protecting and reinforcing the distinctive elements and features of the landscape are essential to maintaining the inspirational and immediately recognisable character of the area.

Of particular importance are the maintenance of the ‘wild’ coastline, the mudflats, marshes and estuaries, and the open, uncluttered, and generally undeveloped character where it remains, the wealth of associated wildlife and the relationship between a productive landscape and the management of water.

All opportunities to ensure that development respects local settlement patterns and building materials should be taken, and to avoid the loss of historic evidence through insensitive development or management.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

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

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Internationally important buried, ‘found’ and above ground archaeological and heritage assets
• Geological and palaeo-environmental records
• Wealth of sites and features illustrating human occupation and management of a wetland and coastal landscape
• Strong surviving pastoral land use and character

State – The NCA has a strong sense of history and a record of human occupation that is recognised, although not designated, as being of international importance. The underlying geodiversity also contains a nationally important record of ancient landscapes and climates.

The deep peat deposits of the Brue Valley are particularly rich in buried archaeology; some of the oldest records of human occupation of the English landscape have been recovered from this area. Probably best-known is the ‘Sweet Track’; a more than 6,000 year old example of a timber trackway used to traverse the wetlands of the Brue Valley. Many artefacts from pre history, the Bronze and Iron Ages, Roman activity, notably saltings, and a wealth of medieval evidence have been recovered from the area.

The history of the area is closely associated with water; the drainage of the landscape, flooding and occasional catastrophic inundation. The historical settlement pattern across the area is also closely related to the availability of land safe from flooding and access to productive pastoral ground. Many farmsteads and villages are positioned on small raised areas of land little more than a metre higher than the surrounding area.

The abbeys of Glastonbury and Wells were influential in shaping this landscape and played an important role in the early history of Christianity.

19th and 20th century heritage is equally apparent in this landscape, for example the engineering infrastructure for water level management and the military installations and defences along the rivers and drains and particularly along the River Parrett.

Main beneficiary – International

Analysis – Pressure for change is most notable along the corridor of the M5 motorway and in places along the coast; for infrastructure and distribution, and tourism facilities respectively. Housing development around Bridgwater, Weston-super-Mare and other larger settlements is also affecting a degree of change in the character of the area.

The most distinctive characteristics of the landscape remain as a continuing challenge between water and land. Periods of prolonged flooding can test the agricultural viability of the landscape and bring about changes to the species and habitat composition of the area. Likewise, drought may also bring about noticeable change to the character and culture of the area. What persists is a fine balance between the lush, productive pastoral farmed landscape and the complex wildlife within it and the forces of nature and in particular the presence and absence of water.

The landscape of the Levels and Moors has and continues to provide inspiration for many people, particularly as a place steeped in history, with a wealth of wildlife and peaceful undisturbed places.

Basketry and willow weaving remains both a commercial and artistic pursuit intrinsically connected with this area.

Opportunities – Identifying, protecting and reinforcing the distinctive elements and features of the landscape are essential to maintaining the inspirational and immediately recognisable character of the area.

Of particular importance are the maintenance of the ‘wild’ coastline, the mudflats, marshes and estuaries, and the open, uncluttered, and generally undeveloped character where it remains, the wealth of associated wildlife and the relationship between a productive landscape and the management of water.

All opportunities to ensure that development respects local settlement patterns and building materials should be taken, and to avoid the loss of historic evidence through insensitive development or management.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

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

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Low-lying and level topography
• Extensive areas of sparsely populated grazing marsh
• Open waterbodies and watercourses

State – According to CPRE Intrusion Mapping only 39 per cent of the area remains ‘undisturbed’. There are, however, substantial areas where intrusion and disturbance have not occurred and large parts of the area remain sparsely settled and populated and uncluttered by modern infrastructure.

The close association with waterbodies and watercourses further accentuates the sense of tranquillity.

The majority of intrusion into perceived tranquillity occurs along the M5 motorway corridor, around Bridgwater, Burnham-on-Sea and Weston-super-Mare and in places associated with tourism along the coast

Main beneficiary – Local

Analysis – Tranquillity remains an important aspect of the Levels and Moors landscape. Although increased development has occurred along the M5 motorway corridor, around Bridgwater, Burnham-on-Sea and Weston-super-Mare, and along the coast much of inland area, east of the M5, remains sparsely populated, isolated from roads and settlement and often appears ‘wild’ and remote, particularly along the upper reaches of the rivers Axe, Brue and Parrett.

The lack of intrusion into many parts of the Levels and Moors is also a contributory factor to the wealth of wildlife to be found, particularly the large assemblages of waders, wetland and farmland birds.

The coastline of Bridgwater Bay, notably between Steart and Stolford and at Brean Down remains largely tranquil, closely associated with the seascape of the Bristol Channel.

Opportunities – Seek to conserve remaining areas of tranquillity, the open uncluttered views and skylines and the strong pastoral character particularly along the Axe, Brue and Parrett valleys and around the fringes of Bridgwater Bay.

Seek to conserve areas of tranquillity associated with the coast, Bridgwater Bay and the Bristol Channel reflecting the strength of maritime character

Principal services offered by opportunities –

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

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Close to 1,500 ha of accessible National Nature Reserve
• Accessible nature conservation sites
• Coast and beaches
• Small areas of open access land
• Droves, tracks, bankside paths and quiet lanes

State – The area provides substantial areas of exceptionally high quality access to wildlife. The many nature reserves attract large numbers of visitors at all times of year and often include easy and level access catering for all. They provide access to nature for a wide range of interests; from the casual visitor to the amateur scientist.

Coastal recreation includes traditional seaside resort activities, birdwatching and fishing, horse riding and some more active sports such as kite buggying. Wildfowling is also pursued across the area, but most typically at and around the coast.

The area offers a network of rights of way totalling 892 km at a density of 1.4 km per km2. Many rights of way and permissive paths follow traditional droves – livestock tracks running into the heart of the levels and moors. Tracks and quiet lanes are popular with cyclists and walkers and provide level and often easy access for all abilities.

Main beneficiary – National

Analysis – Tranquillity remains an important aspect of the Levels and Moors landscape. Although increased development has occurred along the M5 motorway corridor, around Bridgwater, Burnham-on-Sea and Weston-super-Mare, and along the coast much of inland area, east of the M5, remains sparsely populated, isolated from roads and settlement and often appears ‘wild’ and remote, particularly along the upper reaches of the rivers Axe, Brue and Parrett.

The lack of intrusion into many parts of the Levels and Moors is also a contributory factor to the wealth of wildlife to be found, particularly the large assemblages of waders, wetland and farmland birds.

The coastline of Bridgwater Bay, notably between Steart and Stolford and at Brean Down remains largely tranquil, closely associated with the seascape of the Bristol Channel.

Opportunities – Seek to conserve remaining areas of tranquillity, the open uncluttered views and skylines and the strong pastoral character particularly along the Axe, Brue and Parrett valleys and around the fringes of Bridgwater Bay.

Seek to conserve areas of tranquillity associated with the coast, Bridgwater Bay and the Bristol Channel reflecting the strength of maritime character

Principal services offered by opportunities –

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

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Wetland habitats including large areas of flood plain and coastal grazing marsh,
  open water and watercourses
• Coastal and estuarine habitats; salt marsh and sand dunes
• Large areas designated for their nature conservation interests including SAC, SPA, Ramsar, SSSI and local sites
• Rare, scarce and common species

State – The area contains 8,385 ha of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) over 36 sites, 6,777 ha of Special Protection Area (SPA) and Ramsar, and 651 ha Special Area for Conservation (SAC). Six National Nature Reserves (NNRs) cover 1,437 ha of the area. Thirteen per cent of the area is designated as SSSI over 36 sites. In 2011, 92 per cent of SSSI land was in favourable or unfavourable, recovering condition.

Over 43,000 ha, two-thirds of the area, is classified as flood plain and coastal grazing marsh priority habitat and there are 1,790 ha of fen. The large areas of widely undisturbed wetland habitat support large numbers of over-wintering and breeding waders, wetland and farmland birds. This is complimented by the close proximity to the fertile waters and mud flats of Bridgwater Bay and the Bristol Channel.

Common species of bird, invertebrate and mammals can be found in large numbers, for example starling and dragonflies, alongside rare and scare species; bittern, great white egret, silver diving beetle and greater water parsnip.

Main beneficiary – International

Analysis – Across much of the area many habitats, particularly flood plain and coastal grazing marsh and coastal and estuarine habitats, occur in coherent and heterogeneous mosaics. Generally, designated sites and habitats are in favourable or favourable, recovering condition. Semi-natural habitats are dispersed widely throughout the area and are often closely related or integrated into the farmed environment.

The main influence on existing designated and non-designated terrestrial habitats and species is flooding. Other effects of climate change, development pressures and changes in agricultural practices will place further pressures on species and habitats. However, increased flooding and prolonged periods of high water levels may favour certain species and result in a requirement to adopt extensive grazing practices. A changing climate may also increase the risk of colonisation by non-native invasive species, particularly along watercourse and in waterbodies.

Conversion of pastoral land to arable production or maize production for livestock feeds may also place pressure on some habitats and result in localised fragmentation of habitat networks.
However, a number of species, notably a number of wetland and wading birds can benefit from areas under cultivation if best practice and timing of cropping is adopted.

A number of peat workings remain in operation and will present further opportunities for restoration and creation of habitats when expended.

Change along the coast, for example the realignment project at the Steart peninsula, can bring significant benefits for biodiversity; however, ‘coastal squeeze’ on intertidal habitats may be exacerbated in some areas as a result of a need to ‘hold the line’ of coastal defences.

Opportunities – Continue to work in partnership with landowners, farmers, the Internal Drainage Boards and others involved with water and land management, and the range of agencies and conservation organisations operating in the area to maximise the combined potential for food provision, water regulation and biodiversity.

Maintain and increase where appropriate the extent of wet grassland and encourage the use of extensive grazing regimes that realise the potential to increase floristic diversity and improve soil quality.

Improve the quality and increase the area of all priority habitats, notably flood plain and coastal grazing marsh, reedbeds, mires and fen, open waterbodies, arable habitats and connecting watercourses, looking to better connect, buffer, improve and create habitat patches, resulting in more coherent and resilient ecological networks to improve habitat resilience and enable necessarily responsive species movement.

Continue to use evidence to build a landscape scale approach to habitat management and restoration and to prioritise action on the ground, benefitting the strong sense of a special place and strengthening landscape character. In particular use all tools available, such as habitat mapping, to target appropriate action.

Protect and enhance designated sites aiming to achieve favourable condition on all sites and linking them, where appropriate and where there is no risk of increasing the range of non-native invasive species, to the wider habitat network to further enhance their influence, functionality and resilience to climate change and other threats.

Identify and realise opportunities to protect, restore and manage wetland and coastal habitats and manage them appropriately to increase their adaptability to climate change and rising sea levels.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

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

Assets/attributes: main contributors to service –

• Post-glacial accumulation of Quaternary alluvium, including Burtle Beds, peats and marine clays
• Soils and soil formation
• Coastal, estuarine and river geomor- phological processes
• Local stone and locally derived brick in vernacular buildings

State – There are 5 SSSI within the Levels and Moors that are designated wholly or in part, for their geological interest.

Quaternary deposits over the level basin of Mercia Mudstones are particularly important for the record of; fluctuating climate and sea levels; fluvial and marine geomorphological processes; fossiliferous deposits preserving evidence of past landscapes and climates, for example plant fossils documenting the vegetation succession through moss, sedge, carr and wood fen; and peat and soil deposition and development.

There is a dynamic system of accretion and erosion along the coastline – much influenced by the extremely high tidal range and sediment carried down the Severn estuary – creating intertidal and subtidal mudflats, sand flats and salt marsh around the fringe of Bridgwater Bay and within the River Parrett estuary.

Main beneficiary – National

Analysis – The development and deposition of peat is an ongoing and measurable process in a few remaining areas of fen; however, maintenance of low water levels will impair this process. Past and ongoing extraction of peat from the area allows for some, limited exploration of palaeo-environmental records.

Of particular importance to this area is the study, understanding and functioning of coastal and estuarine geomorphological processes.

The use of locally sourced stone in vernacular architecture is an expression of the deeper, solid geology in and adjacent to the area, notably the use of blue Lias Limestone and locally derived bricks.

Opportunities – Identify and realise opportunities for enhanced access to and understanding of geodiversity and particularly soils within the area.

Maintain natural geomorphological processes, particularly in fen areas, along rivers and at the coast that contribute to the regulation of flooding.

Support the use of local stone as a building material to help maintain local distinctiveness.

Improve the long term condition of geological sites by ensuring that underlying factors influencing site favourability are managed appropriately, for example management to keep exposures clear. For coastal sites this should be considered within the context of dynamic coastal processes.

Principal services offered by opportunities –

• Geodiversity
• Regulating soil quality
• Regulating coastal erosion
• Sense of place/inspiration
• Sense of history