Sheep grazing scheme is preserving habitats (From Gazette & Herald)

Sheep grazing scheme is preserving habitats

A £5.5 MILLION scheme to help sheep farmers tackle overgrazing and undergrazing has improved wildlife habitats on more than 41,000 hectares (or 101,000 acres) of Site of Special Scientific Interest land - an area bigger than the Isle of Wight.

More than 380 farmers and land managers have signed up to English Nature's Sheep Wildlife Enhancement Scheme (SWES) over the last two years and have received grants to help them manage wildlife sites through sustainable grazing.

Many wildlife habitats in England, including some of our most treasured, need grazing to keep them healthy. This scheme has enabled farmers to get the right balance for their sheep and these top wildlife habitats.

Over the past two years, 77 SWES agreements have been set up with farmers in the North York Moors.

The scheme is contributing £250,000 annually to the local economy, rewarding good grazing and feeding practice.

More than £19,000 of this money has come from the North York Moors National Park Authority to help 20 farmers with their sheep gathering, where gathering areas have increased significantly since January 2000.

Capital works have led to 19,000 metres of fencing being repaired to secure existing grazing hefts and £7,000 to help with bracken control.

The North York Moors SSSI is one of England's finest wildlife sites because of its moorland vegetation and birds and is home to the largest continuous area of heather in England.

These habitats are globally rare and support scarce plants and insects as well as large numbers of breeding birds including merlin, golden plover, curlew and snipe and important populations of other birds such as lapwing, peregrine and red grouse.

English Nature's Sheep Wildlife Enhancement Scheme is also revitalising the Vale of York's lowland heaths, a wildlife-rich habitat that has depended on grazing by sheep since the Bronze Age. Skipwith and Strensall Commons have received a boost by increasing numbers of sheep, including rare black Hebridean sheep. The extra sheep are nibbling away tussocky grasses to make enough space for smaller and rarer wildflowers and insects to thrive.

The scheme has also provided a cash injection to help clear areas of heath being lost to invasion by birch scrub.

Updated: 10:41 Wednesday, February 02, 2005