 The Lowland Limestone (Calcareous) Grassland in Lincolnshire and Rutland Project is just one of the schemes to receive funding under Natural England’s Countdown 2010 biodiversity action fund which aims to help some of England’s most threatened biodiversity.
The project area lies in three counties, stretching north from Peterborough to Lincoln, and covers 1,700 square miles. It is dominated by a band of limestone with shallow soils that give rise to some of the richest grasslands in the country. These grasslands can contain 40 species of plant in a square metre of turf including nationally scarce plants such as early gentian and pasqueflower, and support butterflies, glow worms, lizards, skylarks and barn owls.
But only an estimated 100 hectares of this flower-rich grassland remains, much of it confined to roadside verges, nature reserves, quarries and other scattered sites. Many sites are at risk of being managed inappropriately or are too small and fragmented to manage effectively.
Elizabeth Biott, Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust's Conservation Officer said: "This area was identified in the 1940s as a prime area for conservation and since then the grasslands and their important species have become increasingly scarce. With this boost from the Countdown 2010 funding we will be able to put it back on the map as an area renowned throughout the country for its attractive landscape and places where local people and visitors can enjoy its rich biodiversity and geodiversity heritage."
The Lowland Limestone (Calcareous) Grassland in Lincolnshire and Rutland Project will:
- identify, maintain, restore and re-create lowland calcareous grassland;
- improve conditions for associated Biodiversity Action Plan species, including dingy skipper, grizzled skipper, Duke of Burgundy, four-spotted moth, early gentian and skylark;
- increase the resilience of Biodiversity Action Plan and other species to climate change through improving the network of well-managed grassland habitat to facilitate migration;
- raise awareness and increase understanding of the value of this habitat to provide long-term support for its conservation.
The Wild Trout Trust has also received Countdown 2010 funding for the Lincolnshire Chalk Streams Project. Centred on the chalk streams in the Lincolnshire Wolds, the project brings together a partnership of organisations that are actively working together to conserve and enhance this nationally important resource. The project partners are the Environment Agency, Lincolnshire Wolds Countryside Service, Natural England, Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, Anglian Water and the Wild Trout Trust.
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