Survey launched into Vale of Pickering’s wetland heritage (From Gazette & Herald)

Survey launched into Vale of Pickering’s wetland heritage

8:40am Wednesday 28th December 2011 in Farming news

A WETLAND heritage survey has been launched to find out what people know of the wildlife value and landscape history of the Vale of Pickering.

The results will provide feedback to the Wetland Project to guide further landscape partnership work in the area.

The consultation survey has been put together by Scarborough Borough Council’s wetland project officer, Tim Burkinshaw, and Hugo Hughes, an undergraduate horticulture and garden design student of Myerscough College, Lancashire.

Tim said: “I was really pleased when Hugo asked me for help with his survey idea about wetlands. He was interested in people’s perceptions of wetland areas and whether they value them.

“We decided to focus on the Vale of Pickering in particular as there has been a great deal of interest in this area as an under-appreciated floodplain landscape.”

Mr Hughes added: “We hope that this survey will reveal how much local people know about the Vale of Pickering’s wetland heritage as it is a tremendously important landscape and we suspect that very few people are aware of its significance, even those living in it or nearby.

“I’m very passionate about biodiversity and heritage conservation and I understand how important people are to the future of both. I really want the people of this fantastically diverse area to engage with the project and I hope to gain as many responses as possible.”

In the past four years Mr Burkinshaw has been involved with farmers in The Carrs area at the eastern part of the vale, through the Cayton and Flixton Carrs Wetland Project.

The project has been building a network of farm management schemes to restore and protect wet grassland habitat and heritage features through Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreements.

These are agreements of ten years between the landowners and Natural England which focus on features of heritage, landscape or conservation value.

The Cayton and Flixton Carrs Partnership has 11 farm schemes signed up, from Sherburn to Muston, with wetland restoration under way on 815 acres.

To take part in the wetland heritage survey, which ends on January 31, visit scarborough.gov.uk/wetlandsheritagesurvey.

To speak to Hugo Hughes about the survey or to obtain a paper copy, email thevopwetlandproject@ hotmail.co.uk or phone 07528 701111.

Paper copies of the survey can also be collected from and returned to the council’s Customer First centre on St Nicholas Street in Scarborough or any of the tourist information centres in Scarborough, Whitby or Filey.

For more information about the work of the Cayton and Flixton Carrs Wetland Project and the practical work taking place on the farms, contact Tim Burkinshaw, Scarborough Borough Council’s Wetland Project Officer by email to tim.burkinshaw@scarborough.gov.uk or phone 01723 374079 or visit caytonflixtoncarrs.org.uk.