Roles:

Land owners and managers:

• follow best practice in managing important scrub habitat on their sites*
• take up opportunities to restore or create scrub of value to wildlife species*

*Including areas of scrub providing wildlife corridors and connecting habitats. Examples include scrub along the TPT cycle/walking routes and former railway tracks.

Barnsley Council as planning authority:

• sets conditions in planning applications to ensure that the biodiversity value of sites with important scrub are maintained and enhanced

Natural England:

• oversees SSSis with important scrub for Willow Tits
• administers stewardship grant schemes

Voluntary groups and volunteers:

• help with scrub management and control
• help with information about the condition of sites with scrub and provide records of wildlife.

Scrub habitat: key objectives

• Raise awareness of importance of Scrub for biodiversity
• Collate information on the type and extent of Scrub, especially in connection with the distribution of scrub-dependent wildlife
• Analyse records of populations and assemblages of wildlife species in areas of Scrub, with additional surveys in selected places
• Minimise loss of Scrub of significant value to wildlife and where Scrub is lost in development, ensure that it is replaced by appropriate planting.
• Where appropriate, seek opportunities to increase the extent of Scrub, where it is scarce and its presence would benefit wildlife.
• Promote positive conservation management of Scrub habitat with significant value to wildlife —and to prevent scrub encroaching on priority habitats to an undesirable level.

What has been done

• Management plans for Worsbrough and Elsecar country park Willow Carrs.
• Wet Woodland scrub management as part of Willow Tit Back from the Brink project
  YWT, RSPB, BMBC 2017-21

…

Proposed actions

• Complete inventory of existing and potentially important scrub sites.
• Conservation management on identified important scrub sites.

Marking progress

• No reduction in extent of Scrub habitat of significant value to wildlife
• Scrub habitat created and extended including as wildlife corridors
• Sites with significant Scrub habitat in positive conservation management and in or moving towards favourable condition.

Scrub Actions