Our work

Nearly 60 hectares of magnesian limestone grassland and lowland hay meadow extended across five sites in and around County Durham has been entered into the country's first group Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) scheme.  HLS is part of Natural England's Environmental Stewardship Scheme and is aimed at providing significant wildlife benefits in return for payments made to landowners for their positive management. What is different about The Grassland Trust scheme is that it covers a wide range of sites under separate ownership and with widely differing issues, from anti social behaviour to grazing problems, including both over grazing and under grazing, and lack of the appropriate infrastructure to facilitate this. As the project develops, the Trust hopes to encourage other landowners with threatened and rare grasslands to join the project and take advantage of the Trust's expertise and experience.   

 What's been happening:

• This winter's planned scrub control at Marsden Old Quarry and Cleadon Hills has been successfully completed despite the adverse weather
• Two sites at Cross Gill and Hesledon Moor West will soon officially become part of the group agreement, bringing the total number of sites in the Durham's MAGnificent Grasslands project to seven
• Another new site on the edge of Newcastle is currently being looked at for inclusion in the project
• Plans are underway to join the Durham Coastal Grazing Group. This means that some of the HLS sites can be grazed as part of a "East Durham Beef" initiative which aims to market native breed beef from conservation sites.
• In conjunction with Wildflower Ark and Natural England discussions have been taking place to set up a similar project in East Cleveland.

If you would like to know more about this project or get involved, please speak to Claire Bending, Conservation Officer.