Grasslands and heaths under threat
Grasslands and heaths are important features of the Chilterns’ landscape, but their habitats and characteristics are being lost at an alarming rate; for example, ten of the 60 rarer chalk flora species are already thought to be extinct. Threats to the survival of our grassland heritage include lack of management, climate change, habitat loss and invasive species.
Grasslands and heaths are a vital part of our environment, providing us with natural resources and services. Yet, they face a host of threats, causing severe declines in our habitats and wildlife – for instance, a staggering 97% of wildflower meadows have been lost in the UK since the 1940s, while our once extensive chalk grassland now only covers 1% of the Chilterns, mostly in small fragments. This ultimately affects the ability of our grasslands and heathlands to provide us with the things we need.
The Chilterns Conservation Board works with partners, stakeholders and the public across the area to help our grasslands and heathlands. We are not just managing the threats they face, but restoring the landscape, so that it is both resilient to change and can continue to provide us with the benefits we enjoy. To guide us, we have a Management Plan, which sets out the vision, policies and actions for the management of the Chilterns from 2019 to 2024. It describes how best to conserve, enhance and enjoy the Chilterns, helping all those with a responsibility for the landscape to care for it for current and future generations.
Looking after the Chilterns
The CCB protects the landscape, history and wildlife of the Chilterns, monitors planning and development across the area, promotes sustainability, and engages with local communities. Find out how we do this and how you can get involved, too, by visiting our What we do pages.
Major threats to the grasslands and heaths of the Chilterns
Climate Change
We are in a climate emergency. Global warming – where the global average temperature rises – is happening at a scary rate, and experts agree that an increase of nearly 3-4oC could be possible by 2100. The biggest culprit of this change is the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, emitted into the atmosphere through human activity like burning fossil fuels and cutting down trees.
Climate change not only affects our wildlife and habitats (our natural capital), but also affects many of our ecosystem services (the benefits we get from natural capital). Thus, it impacts every aspect of society, from disaster risk to food security, economy to health and well-being. In the Chilterns, it will have a major, but unpredictable, influence on the natural beauty and natural capital of the landscape; for example, shifts in the timing of seasonal events, will change how plants and animals live and thrive in our grasslands and heaths.
Initiatives that are carbon-friendly can sometimes have a negative impact on other aspects of wildlife and habitats. For instance, tree-planting in the wrong place, such as on species-rich grasslands, can inadvertently cause damage to these fragile ecosystems. Ecosystems that not only store carbon themselves (permanent grasslands and rough grazing pasture are important for their carbon storage, maybe more so than our woodlands), but can also provide a buffer against some of the effects of climate change, such as increased flooding, extreme weather, soil erosion and decreases in pollinator species.
How can the Chilterns Conservation Board help?
- Monitor and understand the impacts on key species and habitats as a result of climate change. This will help farmers and other land managers to make good decisions regarding future management.
- Create well-connected networks of habitats that allow species to move through the landscape in response to the changing climate and shifting local ecology.
- Protect and restore our grasslands and heathlands, recognising their importance for both wildlife and carbon storage.
- Capture and store carbon through tree cover, working with landowners and other agencies to support tree planting that follows the golden rule: the right tree in the right place.
- Promote and encourage local food products to help reduce carbon emissions from the transportation of goods.
- Promote the Chilterns as a sustainable alternative for short and long visits – an outstanding landscape, accessible by public transport and on the doorstep of millions in the South East.
How can you help?
- Reduce your carbon footprint. There are lots of ways to reduce your carbon emissions in your day-to-day life, such as travelling by public transport, bike or foot to work or recreation; heating your house only when needed; and buying locally produced or carbon-low products.
- Visit your local nature spots to reduce travel; enjoy a staycation in the Chilterns! Find out where to go using our interactive map.
- Plant a tree. Either in your garden or as part of a scheme or project.
- Manage your land for wildlife. If you are a farmer or landowner, the way you manage your land will determine whether it is resilient to climate change. [Find out more] [link to Managing land for nature L3 page]
- Encourage your employer or local business to reduce their carbon footprint. Find out more
Mob grazing to lock in carbon
Funding from Rothschild foundation has enabled 18 farms in the Central Chilterns Farmer Cluster to carry out whole farm carbon assessments. Farmer David knight has successfully applied for Farming in Protected Landscapes funding to establish a ‘mob grazing’ system which helps manage chalk grassland in a way that stores more carbon. Permanent grassland locks in soil carbon.
Habitat loss
Development, transport infrastructure and changes in land use fragment habitats. For grasslands and heaths, this can mean that hedgerows are severed, farmland monocultured, and ancient meadows and downland lost, damaged or reduced. Wildlife habitats need to be big enough and well connected for wildlife to thrive. Species need corridors to move through the landscape in response to a changing environment.
A recent report highlighted that England’s wildlife sites are generally too small and too isolated, leading to a devastating loss of some of our most loved or iconic species. To combat this, we need better and more resilient ecological networks for plants and animals; we need more, bigger, better and joined habitats.
How can the Chilterns Conservation Board help?
- Continue to protect, restore and enhance the grasslands and heathlands of the Chilterns.
- Work with planners and developers to look after important wildlife spaces, create habitat networks, and include green space within developments.
- Promote and encourage environmentally sensitive farming methods, including hay-cutting, hedge-laying and planting pollinator strips.
- Create well-connected networks of habitats that allow species to move through the landscape in response to changing conditions.
- Promote the use of gardens as part of a wider ecological network – connecting wild spaces between towns by encouraging people to garden with wildlife in mind.
How can you help?
- Garden with wildlife in mind. Gardening for wildife
- Support local nature by visiting your local nature spots or enjoying a staycation in the Chilterns. Find out where to go using our interactive map.
- Support the Chilterns Conservation Board, local conservation charities by donating, fundraising or volunteering your time. Visit our Volunteering hub
- Manage your land for wildlife. If you are a farmer or landowner, the way you manage your land can help to create wildlife networks. Find out more [link to Managing land for nature L3 page]
- Encourage your employer or local business to create space for nature. Find out more.
Butterflies moving northwards
Climate change leads to loss of species. As our planet warms, species are moving northwards at an alarmingly rapid rate, and they need the right habitats to go to if they are to survive. According to Butterfly Conservation, one quarter of Europe’s butterflies will lose 95% of their current range, leading to a potentially huge spate of extinctions. The Chilterns is ideally placed to help butterfly species survive this northwards movement. Creating bigger, more joined up areas of rich, well managed chalk grassland is crucial to helping grassland butterfly species migrate northwards.
Inappropriate management
Flower-rich grasslands and purple-studded heaths were once part of a patchwork of farmland and common land, knitted together by hedges and ponds, and defined by topography, soils, ancient rights and management. Yet, over many years, there has been a decline in traditional land management, such as grazing, coppicing, the keeping of orchards, the exercise of common rights, and hedge-laying. Coupled with increased development, this has led to the degradation of many of our grassland and heathland habitats; during the 20th century alone, 90% of our grasslands were lost. Wildlife has suffered as a result. Turtle doves, skylarks and corn buntings are on the brink of extinction; plants like pheasant’s-eye and shepherd’s-needle are now classified as Endangered on the Vascular Plant Red List for England; and even the once-common hedgehog is now threatened.
Grassland and heathland management is important to create the conditions in which the specialist wildlife that lives there can thrive. Actively managing these places to encourage the growth of wildflowers and keep vigorous weeds at bay, and to create networks of habitats through connecting hedges, ponds and floodplains, helps to ensure resilience to climate change, pests and disease.
How can the Chilterns Conservation Board help?
- Encourage landowners and managers to use traditional methods of management on their grasslands and heaths, including hay-cutting, scrub clearance, hedge-laying, coppicing and common rights.
- Create well-connected networks of habitats that allow species to move through the landscape in response to changing conditions.
- Promote the use of local goods like food (meat, dairy, honey, wheat, etc.), wood for fuel, and hay, silage and manure.
- Protect and restore commons and common rights, alongside promoting them as places for recreation and enjoyment.
How can you help?
- Support local grasslands and heaths by visiting your local nature spots or enjoying a staycation in the Chilterns. Find out where to go using our interactive map.
- Volunteer to help manage local grasslands and heaths.
- Buy locally produced food or wood fuel and support local craftspeople.
- Manage your land for wildlife. If you are a farmer or landowner, the way you manage your land can help to restore our meadows and heathlands and create wildlife networks. Find out more [link to Managing land for nature L3 page]
- Encourage your employer or local business to plant trees, lay hedges or manage grasslands on their land. Find out more.
Improving chalk grassland management at Lodge Hill
Chalk, Cherries and Chairs (CCC) supported Lodge Hill farm with removal of huge areas of scrub that were shading the chalk grasslands, introducing Countryside Stewardship, and establishing cattle grazing with Galloways to improve grassland management. CCC is now embarking on a similar project on another farm to improve the management of their SSSI* chalk grassland. *(Site of Special Scientific Interest) Funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund. Watch the video below
Lodge Hill conservation at landscape scale
Invasive species and diseases
There are plants and animals in our countryside that have either been introduced from other countries, or spread from one area to another. Sometimes these species don’t cause too much trouble, but at other times, they can have terrible impacts on native wildlife. Examples include non-native muntjac deer and grey squirrels, but there are many more.
On heathlands, bracken, gorse and scrub can become invasive if grazing is not used to keep them under control, and exotic rhododendrons escaped from gardens can shade and exclude native plants. On grasslands, common ragwort can be invasive and is dangerous for grazing animals, while plants like thistles and docks can take hold quickly and shade out delicate flowers. Non-native plants can also cause devastation; Himalayan balsam escapes from gardens and takes over ditches and wet habitats, and Japanese knotweed invades grassy roadside verges and railway cuttings, crowding out native wildflowers.
Diseases are also a growing problem for our trees and shrubs, especially as climate change affects the resilience of our native wildlife to new threats. Phytophtora diseases are soil diseases that affect trees and shrubs like larch and juniper, now a rare plant in the Chilterns. Box blight is another fungal disease that can be spread from one plant to another on contact. The Chilterns has some important box woods, so it is vital to keep these sites free of infection.
How can the Chilterns Conservation Board help?
- Encourage the active management of grasslands and heaths across the Chilterns to prevent invasive species and diseases spreading.
- Help land managers and owners with pest and disease control, promoting sustainable and eco-friendly methods.
- Inform the public and those visiting our countryside about diseases and how to stop their spread, for instance, cleaning shoes.
- Promote wildlife-friendly gardening, using native species and being careful about discarding garden waste to avoid plants escaping into the wild.
- Create well-connected networks of habitats that are resilient to change and allow species to move through the landscape.
How can you help?
- Be careful how you tread! Some diseases can be spread via soil and contact, so wash your boots between site visits.
- Be careful how you garden! Use native planting schemes where possible and try not to introduce non-native plants into the surrounding area, for example by discarding cuttings.
- Support local grasslands and heaths by visiting your local nature spots or enjoying a staycation in the Chilterns. Find out where to go using our interactive map.
- Volunteer to help manage local grasslands and heaths.
- Manage your land for wildlife. If you are a farmer or landowner, the way you manage your land can help to restore our native wildflowers and animals and create wildlife networks. Find out more [link to Managing land for nature L3 page]
- Encourage your employer or local business use native plants on their land. Find out more.
40 new Priority Habitat designations
The Chalk Cherries and Chairs project (CCC) commissioned grassland surveys on 70 fields of grassland. 40 of those were deemed suitable to be designated as Priority Habitats. This designation gives access to more funding options, enabling us to support them further with managing that grassland.
Pollution
Our grasslands and heaths are under threat from pollutants used for farming, such as fertilisers, insecticides and herbicides. These leach into the ground, changing soil and water composition, kill our much-needed pollinators, and accidentally target native, wild plants as well as those that are an agricultural pest. Over-fertilised areas promote the growth of vigorous grasses at the expense of other herbs.
Air pollution is mainly nitrogen from transport and power stations, and ammonia from agriculture, particularly, livestock. As well as ravaging wild plants, woodlands and meadows, air pollution can have a detrimental and direct effect on our health.
Nitrogen levels in the UK countryside are leading to an increase in nitrogen-tolerant plant species, which out-compete many characteristic native species. This can have a knock-on effect for other species like butterflies. Trees can also directly suffer as they are stripped of their protective lichens, and plants may be more susceptible to damage from drought, frost and diseases.
Lichens are powerful indicators of air pollution. They are sensitive and respond to pollution in short timeframes. Many lichens evolved in naturally low levels of atmospheric nitrogen, so will disappear when faced with polluted air. Assessing the lichen communities in a habitat can provide an indication of its overall health.
How can the Chilterns Conservation Board help?
- Work with planners and developers to decrease the amount of traffic on the roads, particularly over short distances, and include green space within developments.
- Promote and encourage environmentally sensitive farming methods.
- Encourage people to leave the car at home whenever possible.
- Promote the Chilterns as a sustainable alternative for short and long visits – an outstanding landscape, accessible by public transport and on the doorstep of millions in the South East.
- Create well-connected networks of habitats that allow species to move through the landscape in response to changing conditions.
How can you help?
- Reduce your air pollution. There are lots of ways to reduce your emissions in your day-to-day life, such as travelling by public transport, bike or foot to work or recreation; and buying locally produced products.
- Visit your local nature spots to reduce travel; enjoy a staycation in the Chilterns! Find out where to go using our interactive map.
- Manage your land for wildlife. If you are a farmer or landowner, the way you manage your land will determine how polluting it is. Find out more [link to Managing land for nature L3 page]
- Encourage your employer or local business to reduce their transport emissions. Find out more
Chilterns farmer achieves prestigious Local Wildlife Site status for Manor Farm
Read how Chilterns farmer Andrew Stubbings used low input, low nitrogen farming methods and Countryside Stewardship to turn his 255 hectare farm into a stronghold for species rich chalk grassland with more than 280 species of plant, and 35 species of butterfly – half the total number of butterfly species found in the UK.