Peak Birds Project

• What's in it for the farmers?
• What's in it for the RSPB?

What's in it for the farmers?

Catherine and her teams of volunteers can provide practical free advice that can maximise the potential of current management systems for birds, with the emphasis on low cost - or no cost - action.

Under Defra's agri-environment schemes, farmers can receive payments of up to £355 per hectare for up to 10 years, with additional capital payments available for extras such as pond creation, hedgerow management, fencing and wall restoration.

Wherever you are in the Peak District, there is an agri-environment grant-aid scheme for habitat management applicable for your land, and through the Peak Birds Project the RSPB will give free advice and help develop and submit an agri-environment application.

• Typical management under one of these schemes might include the following:
• Grazing during the late summer, autumn and early winter, preferably, by cattle, to produce a diverse sward structure.
• Grazing levels would be reduced during late March to mid-June to reduce the risk of nests being trampled.
• Creating damp ground conditions, ideally persisting until June, to provide good feeding conditions for wading birds and their chicks. This could involve sluicing ditches, creating new ditches and shallow scrapes, and managing field drains to maintain dampness.
• Marginal arable land can be similarly managed through an arable reversion to grassland option.
• Grass removal by cutting may be an alternative where livestock grazing is not possible.
• Protecting and/or reinstating the hay meadows and flower-rich pastures on which twite depend almost exclusively for their food.
• Rush management
• Spring sowing a fodder crop   

A £15,000 Aggregates Tax grant will also allow farmers to apply for money to manage rush to create a mosaic for breeding waders.

Catherine has visited more than 165 landowners and entered more than 30 into various levels of management agreement.

For more information about the Peak Birds Project contact the RSPB, Westleigh Mews, Wakefield Road, Denby Dale, Huddersfield HD8 8QD. Tel: 01484 861148.

Last modified: 04 July 2006

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