Transcript WATER CATCHMENT AND RIVER QUALITY IMPROVEMENT …

WATER CATCHMENT AND RIVER QUALITY
IMPROVEMENT WORKSHOP GAIRLOCH
This workshop Highlights ENVIRONMENTAL Packages within
the Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP) that, when
applied to water catchment and river quality improvement,
contribute to achieving Regional Rural Priorities.
Describes the various Options that can be used to deliver these
Packages.
Gives an outline of the application process.
It does NOT aim to Deliver a comprehensive portfolio of all
SRDP options available to all farmers or answer every detail
about applying for SRDP.
Scottish Rural Development
Programme
• The SRDP is a £1.6 billion programme of
economic, environmental and social measures
designed to develop rural Scotland over the
next five years.
• Measures will be delivered through various
sources, we will look at Rural Development
Contracts.
Rural Development Contracts (RDCs)
• Generate benefits for the people of Scotland
(NOT to give landowners money to do good
things - keep at back of mind at all times)
• Competitive, outcome-led and priorities driven
(unlike past schemes)
• One stop shop (HUGE CHOICE= deluge of info and
this is just one tiny bit)
• Applications as big or little as want (but costs
about £1000 to apply)
• RDCs deliver Regional Priorities of SRDP, we are
interested in two: Biodiversity and Water Quality
Biodiversity Priorities
• Biodiversity Priorities
"A halt in the loss of biodiversity and reverse previous
losses“ High Score for:
• Biodiversity Action Plan species (salmon, sea
trout, brown trout, artic char, lamprey).
• Biodiversity Action Plan habitats (reedbeds, lochs,
lochans, rivers, streams, wet and riparian woods).
• Interpret or raise awareness of Highland
biodiversity.
• planted Ancient Woodland Sites.
SSSIs, SACs, SPAs and Ramsar sites being in
'favourable condition' by 2010. High score for:
• action which contributes to nationally
important nature sites achieving 'favourable
condition' .
• Proposals which involve collaboration.
Viable populations of Species Action Framework species. High
score:
• Black Grouse, Red Squirrel, Wildcat, Water Vole, Whitetailed Eagle, Freshwater Pearl Mussel, Pine Hoverfly, Woolly
Willow and Hen Harrier.
• Reduce threat from non-native species.
• Eradicate/control Rhododendron and Japanese Knotweed.
Increase connected natural habitats through collaboration and
whole ecosystem approach. High score
• increase the area of connected natural habitats such as
landscape-scale approaches to deer management and
riparian/wetland corridors.
Water and Soils Priorities
Reduce diffuse pollution from land uses. High
Score:
• reduce risk of diffuse and point source
pollution adjacent to water bodies categorised
as at risk in Scotland River Basin Plan (2009 2015).
• catchment wide proposals.
• return the water body to good or better
ecological status or potential.
Improved protection in areas at risk from
erosion or flooding through management of
existing habitats or the creation of appropriate
habitats (e.g. floodplains and along river
edges). High Scores:
• reduction erosion in riparian and heavily
grazed areas (e.g. Docharty Burn).
• create habitat to protect and enhance
biodiversity.
Priorities are achieved by
implementing a choice of Packages.
Questions?
PACKAGES
There are 37 Packages that can be used to
implement Regional Priorities. Every Package
relates to one or more Priority. Every Package
contains a number of Options which can be
used to implement the Package.
Relevant Packages
• Running and Standing Waters
• Native woodlands and Associated Habitats
and Species
• Reducing Diffuse Pollution
• Improved Water Resource Management
• Sustainable Flood Management
Package: Running and Standing
Waters
Scotland's fresh waters are important assets,
providing habitat for Atlantic Salmon, Otter,
Freshwater Pearl Mussel.
Threats include salmon spawning becoming
smothered, fish kills, damaged vegetation and
invasive plants.
This package aims to improve the physical and
chemical characteristics of fresh waters.
Suitable Options to implement the Running and
Standing Waters Package in Wester Ross
include the following.
NOTE other options exist within the package AND some Options
occur in more than one Package.
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Skills development
Soil and water management programme
Control of invasive non-native species
Water margins and enhanced riparian buffer
areas
• Management of flood plains
• Woodland creation - Naturally regenerated native
woodland
• Woodland creation - Native woodland planting
Contextual up to this point, now nitty gritty.
Questions?
Some of these Options are elaborated on below.
Option: Skills Development
• This Option will improve land management skills
amongst land managers to deliver the environmental
objectives of the SRDP.
• Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
• Conservation and environmental skills
• Self and staff management
• Looking at new ways of working
• Technical skills
• 75% of the cost of training, with course fees based on
actual costs.
Option: Soil and Water Management
Programme (SWMP)
SWMP assess erosion, compaction and losses of organic matter risks to
soil and water and devises management practices to address them.
Option 1: Prepare a SWMP
Draw up a SWMP and use it to support applications for the SRDP
Options which it identified as measures to minimise the risks.
Option 2: Implementmeasures where no SRDP Option is available.
Where a SWMP identifies site-specific measures which cannot be
funded elsewhere within the SRDP (such as placement of boulders
to reduce bank erosion), identify the measures to be carried out,
the improvements expected to be achieved, and the costs involved.
• Costs Supported
• Option 1 50% of the cost of plan preparation
up to a maximum payment of £300.
• Option 2: Funding a proportion of costs up to
a maximum £30 per hectare based on the
area to which the measure is to apply.
Normally no more than 40% of the costs paid.
Option: Control of Invasive Nonnative Species
• Rhododendron and Japanese knotweed. At the end of
year five must be no Rhododendron or Japanese
knotweed present. Applications must be collaborative.
• Rhododendron - manual, mechanised with chemical
follow up and chemical control.
• Japanese knotweed - chemical control and digging out.
• Submit a 1:10,000 map identifying area affected and
percentage for treatment.
• In addition to capital items, financial support of up to
100% of eligible actual costs is available on SSSIs and
Natura features.
Manual eradication - £3500 per hectare of
infested land.
Mechanised eradication with chemical follow up
- £850 per hectare of infested land.
Chemical eradication - £850 per hectare of
infested land.
Japanese knotweed - £160 per ha. per annum.
Option: Water Margins and Enhanced
Riparian Buffer Areas
• Protect water margins from erosion and diffuse
pollution by distancing agricultural activity. Encourages
waterside unfertilised grass/woodland buffers that
stabilise banks, intercept overland water flow and trap
sediment.
• Water margin requirements are related to bed width
and habitat from 6 to 20m.
• A Management Plan to deliver biodiversity or water
quality benefits and to create buffer strips. It should
describe the existing vegetation and outlines
management objectives and how they will be achieved.
Choices within the Option
1. To enhance biodiversity interest
Light grazing in late summer/early autumn to
maintain a sward height between 10 and 15
cm.
2. To reduce diffuse pollution
Control rank growth to maintain a close, even
sward, either by light grazing as in Choice 1 or
by mowing to reduce the sward height to
between 10 to 15 cm in late Summer/early
Autumn.
In both cases:
• control grazing to avoid poaching and damage to banks
• farm livestock must have access to adjacent fields
• no applications of lime, fertilisers, farmyard manure or
pesticides
• control scheduled weeds and invasive non-native species
• no cultivation
• do not clear existing drains or cut new drains
• do not modify or reinforce the river or loch banks
• SRDP finance is available to install water troughs
• no supplementary feeding
• use native species of trees of local origin.
• Costs Supported
• The following are examples of Capital Items that
may be claimed:
• fencing, gates and fence removal
• water trough
• bringing drains/culverts to the surface.
• In addition to the above capital items there is
100% financial support of eligible costs in respect
to Capital works on Sites of Special Scientific
Interest (SSSI) and Natura features.
Rates
• 5-year commitment which pays £286.63 per
hectare per year.
Option: Management of Floodplains
• Creates and maintain a mosaic of wash lands and
dry lands by allowing watercourses to overflow
onto natural flood plains. The flood plain must be
allowed to flood naturally at times of high water
level. No cultivation within 12 m of the banks.
Flood plain management payment is additional
to payments to manage specific habitats within
the flood plain. A collaborative approach.
• This 5-year commitment pays £39 per hectare per
year. Capital costs may also be claimed.
Option: Woodland Creation
Supports creation of new woods using a mixture of the
six choices of woods.
Deliver one or more of the following outcomes:
• increase carbon sequestration
• provide opportunities for public access
• contribute to native woodland expansion
• develop woodland habitat networks to improve
biodiversity
• improve water quality
• improve derelict, underused and neglected land
• develop a sustained yield of suitable raw material.
Planting proposals should be consistent with
published regional woodland strategies.
Riparian woodland must contribute to native
woodland Habitat Action Plan expansion
targets. Woodland Creation Map submitted
with proposal.
What costs will be supported?
• Where planting is on agricultural or
abandoned agricultural land, support (per ha
per yr for 5 yrs) provided for tree
maintenance.
• Annual Farmland Premium per hectare to
cover the loss of agricultural income for either
10 or 15 years will be available for planting on
agricultural land.
Initial Planting Payment
Rate £/ ha
Maintenance Payment
Rate £/ ha/year
Productive conifer
woodland (low cost)
Productive broadleaved
woodland
840
112
1575
161
Native woodland
Naturally regenerated
native woodland
Mixed conifer/broadleaf
woodland
875
154
630
70
1470
154
Woodland Creation Option
Capital payment grants are available for the
activities listed below.
• Deer fence - £4.83 per metre
• Enhancing/modifying deer fence (in black grouse
& capercaillie areas) - £3.50 per metre
• Gate for deer fence - £119/each
• Additional Community Woodland Contribution is:
£1000/ ha
• Payments up to 200 hectares of land planted in
the SRDP 2007-13 period.
Package: Native Woodlands and
Associated Habitats and Species
Supports maintenance or restoration of native
and ancient, semi-natural, high biodiversity
woodlands. Intense deer browsing and sheep
grazing, as well as invasive non-native species,
has impacted negatively on the condition of
native woodland.
Suitable Options to implement the Native
Woodlands and Associated Habitats and
Species Package in Wester Ross include the
following. Options shown in the top list will
always deliver the desired outcomes. Options
in the bottom list will help achieve outcome in
specific circumstances and an explanation of
why these have been chosen will be required.
• Woodland Creation
• Sustainable management of forests - Areas of native
woodland
• Sustainable management of forests - Livestock removal
• Woodland improvement grant - Long-term forest
planning
• Woodland improvement grant - Improving priority
woodland habitats and species
• Woodland improvement grant - Reducing deer impact
• Control of invasive non-native species - Rhododendron
control
• Woodland Creation - native woodland
• Woodland Creation - Broadleaf woodland
• Sustainable management of forests - Areas of high levels of public
access
• Sustainable management of forests - Restructuring felling
• Sustainable management of forests - LISS
• Woodland improvement grant - Improving even-aged woodland
diversity
• Woodland improvement grant - Improving priority non-woodland
habitats
• Management of ancient wood pasture - Rough grazing
• Management of ancient wood pasture - In-bye land
• Management of habitat mosaics
Option: Sustainable Management of
Forests - Areas of Native Woodland
Option: Sustainable Management of
Forests - Livestock removal
Support to sustainably manage forests and
woodlands of high environmental value such
as native woodland and plantation on ancient
woodland sites (PAWS) with or without cattle
grazing and woodland with a high level of
access use.
Require an approved Forest Plan with:
Area of native woodland and areas in which
management work will take place; area where
domestic livestock will be removed and; area
subject to high levels of access.
Describe the present ecological condition and the
proposed management work to improve it. This
should address stand structure, regeneration,
herbivore impacts, species composition and
threats and damage.
Support
Requires provision of a budget for the work
proposed which demonstrates that support is
a contribution to costs. Additional support will
be provided for the removal of domestic
livestock from areas of native woodland for10
years.
Rates
1. Management of areas of native woodlands:
£28/hectare/year for up to 10 years
2. Management of areas subject to high levels of
access: £28/hectare/year for up to 10 years
3. Removal of domestic livestock from native
woodland: £41/hectare/year for up to 10
years
• Option: Woodland improvement grant Long-term forest planning
• Option: Woodland improvement grant Improving priority woodland habitats and
species
• Option: Woodland improvement grant Reducing deer impact
For the environmental improvement of woodlands
which:
deliver long-term forest plans; reduce deer impact;
target species under the Scottish Biodiversity
Strategy and UKBAP;
improve even-aged woodland by restructuring age
and species, and;
improve non-woodland habitats within woodlands.
Forest Plan required.
Long-Term Forest Planning
• Submit a 'concept map' to illustrate the key
issues being addressed by the Forest Plan
• Carry out a scoping exercise and include the
Scoping Report as part of the Forest Plan
Reducing Deer Impact
• Create a deer management plan (DMP).
• If fencing assess risks and mitigate. Deer
culling may be necessary.
• Areas in receipt of grants for deer control
under: Scottish Forestry Grant Scheme;
Sustainable Management of Forests - Areas of
native woodland, and; Sustainable
Management of Forests - Areas of LISS are
ineligible.
Improving Woodland Habitats and
Species
• For native woodland, provide a brief summary
describing the condition of woodland, and
describing the proposed 'direction of travel'
for stand structure, regeneration, herbivore
impact, species composition and threats.
• Show proposals will benefit specific habitats
or species that are under the UK BAP.
Restructuring Regeneration
• Forest Plan.
• Replant at stocking densities equivalent to the
requirements for new woodland creation.
Improving Non-Woodland Habitats
• Show how proposals will benefit priority
habitats under the UKBAP.
• Up to 20% of the woodland area can be nonwoodland and associated open ground habitat
• List of supported costs are available
Package: Reducing Diffuse Pollution
• Good water quality will maintain and enhance
biodiversity and environmental conditions on
farmland and in the waters which drain from
farms.
• This package supports actions which are
needed under existing water legislation and
codes of good practice to reduce losses of
pollutants through the implementation of
options.
• Suitable Options to implement the Reducing
Diffuse Pollution Package in Wester Ross
include the following.
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Reducing bacterial contamination in watercourses
Water margins and enhanced riparian buffer areas
Open grazed or wet grassland for wildlife
Management of species rich grassland
Creation and management of species rich grassland
Management of wetland
Create, restore and manage wetland
Management of flood plains
Ancient wood pasture
Livestock tracks, gates and river crossings
Woodland creation Soil and water management programme
Naturally regenerated native woodland and Native woodland
planting
Package: Improved Water Resource
Management
• Delivers good water quality conditions by
encouraging land managers to restore
meanders to watercourses that have been
straightened to prevent the rapid flow that
tends to take away soil.
• This package will:
• maintain appropriate natural flow regimes and
water levels at all times
• improve flood control and flood storage
• improve terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems by
creating new habitats
• maintain and enhance geodiversity by
maintaining or restoring rivers landforms and
natural processes of river flow
• enhance the landscape, enjoyment and
recreational use of land.
• Options to implement the Improved Water
Resource Management Package in Wester
Ross include the following.
• Soil and Water Management Programme
• Create, restore and manage wetland
• Management of flood plains
Package: Sustainable Flood
Management
• The increased risk of flooding associated with
climate change can be reduced by making
good use of a areas within a catchment that
have natural capacity to store water and
reduce peak flows in watercourses.
• Suitable Options to implement the Sustainable
Flood Management Package in Wester Ross
include the following.
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Management of Flood Plains
Create, Restore and Manage Wetland
Skills development
Woodland creation
What To Do Next
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Decide if interested in making a collective application
Register to obtain a holding number
Employ and agricultural advisor
Have a Statement of Intent, for each landowner,
written.
• Once the Statement of Intent receives an amber light,
have a Full Application, for each landowner, submitted.
• Have agricultural advisor adjust as required to have
Application approved.