Roles:

Landowners and managers:

• follow best practice in managing their rush pastures for wildlife and take up environmental stewardship where possible.
• take up opportunities to restore or create rush pastures where this does not damage other habitats.

Natural England:

• provides guidelines and sets conditions to protect biodiversity, administers countryside stewardship and change of use authorisation

Barnsley Council as planning authority:

• sets conditions in relevant planning applications to ensure that the biodiversity value of rush pastures is maintained and enhanced.

Voluntary groups and volunteers:

•  help with rush pasture management;
• help with information about the condition of rush pastures and provide records of the wildlife in them.

Rush Meadows: Key objectives

• Raise awareness of the importance of Rush Pasture and wet marshy grassland for biodiversity
• Collect and analyse records of populations and assemblages of wildlife species in Rush Pastures in Barnsley, including Lapwing, Curlew, Snipe, Brown Hare.
• Review the extent and condition of Rush Pasture habitat.
• Maintain the extent of Rush Pasture habitat and improve the conservation value of existing rush pasture habitats through appropriate management.
• Encourage the creation of new Rush Pasture habitat. This should not be at the expense of the removal of other valuable habitats like unimproved grassland.
• Seek to create links and corridors between rush pasture habitat sites and with other habitats.

What is being done

• Environmental Stewardship Schemes have supported appropriate management in some areas.
• Some local holdings may be under an agricultural scheme which includes appropriate Rush Pasture management.

Proposed actions

• Encourage participation by farmers in environmental land management schemes.
• Project to identify Rush Pasture sites and maintain inventories of
• sites of high value and interest
• sites with potential to be restored to priority status.

Marking progress

• No reduction in current extent of Rush Pasture
• Rush Pasture created
• Rush Pasture sites under positive conservation management / in favourable condition

continued

• Conduct assessment of condition of identified sites.

Rush Pasture Actions