Living Uplands has worked with a farm in the Weardale uplands to assist in the registration of a significant Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) Scheme in Upper Weardale of around 300 Units across 200ha.
The BNG Scheme is on land that is undesignated, though close to areas that do fall within that category. It is covered by County Durham Local Planning Authority and is within North Pennines National Character Area, the North Pennines National Landscape and is of high strategic significance due to being directly adjacent to the Upper Teesdale SSSI, Moor House-Upper Teesdale SAC, and North Pennine Moors SPA.
This is an exciting opportunity for Living Uplands to monitor and measure improvement in habitat over a timescale of thirty years, and to deepen our collaboration with other nature based organisations and environmental experts in specialised fields.
We have already supported an academic study of the relative merits of rust rod and electronic measuring of the water table on peat land. The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) has provided annual count information for birds, and we are discussing with Durham University the potential for acoustic monitoring of birds over a longer period of time. An expert study has been undertaken of the vegetation across an ancient hay meadow.
There have also been efforts to better understand optimal grazing for sheep, experimenting with numbers, areas grazed and best months.
The potential for nature recovery across the area of the BNG Scheme is extensive.
Living Uplands looks forward to reporting on progress in the improvement of habitat and what we learn from monitoring methods and data collected. With climate change, the more we understand about the impact on ecosystem services the better informed we will be in making management decisions to sustain health and life of our great English upland landscape.
