News

Management Plan 2009-2014

The preparation of a new Forest of Bowland AONB Management Plan has been the result of over 18 months of careful consultation involving five half-day workshops with communities of place (local residents and businesses), an open day event in Chipping; a two-hour workshop with local schoolchildren at Bowland High School; five half-day workshops with communities of interest (AONB partners and other stakeholder organisations); consultation postcards; a web-based consultation; and an extensive literature review.

The new Plan sets out a programme of action for the Partnership working in concert with farmers, landowners, businesses, communities and others to deliver over the next five years, 2009-2014.

The two county and six district councils in the area have now formally approved the plan or are in the process of doing so. A copy has been lodged with the government's agency for the countryside – Natural England and with their agreement forwarded to the Secretary of State for the Environment.

Sincere thanks are sent to all those organisations and individuals who contributed their ideas, criticisms and suggestions that have helped shape the plan. The AONB Unit and partners look forward to working with you and many others over the course of the next five years and beyond. The new AONB Management Plan is available to download as a PDF file. You can also find out some of what's being done to put the plan into practice by checking the website and of course this e-bulletin.

Climate Change Group

As part of a recent review of governance carried out in the AONB we have decided to set up some new theme or 'task and finish' groups to help us deliver and monitor the Management Plan. These groups will bring together interested partners who are already delivering parts of the Management Plan, or who could work together with other partners to instigate new areas of work. One of these groups will look at climate change issues in Bowland, as identified in our revised plan. We want to prioritise several pieces of climate change work in the AONB, notably to:

• Develop a renewable energy policy for the AONB
• Agree an environmental policy for the AONB unit
• Commission a study into the potential for micro hydro in the AONB
• Investigate the possibility for a strategic moorland restoration project which can contribute to carbon sequestration

If you are interested in this area of work and would like to join the group, please contact Cathy Hopley on 01200 426433 or email cathy.hopley@lancashire.gov.uk

Volunteers wanted for projects in Bowland

Help build cycle trails!

Volunteers have been helping to design and build cycle trails through Gisburn Forest since last summer. Volunteers also came from 3M Health Care came out on 2 days as part of the firms 'Employee Volunteering' scheme. Volunteers are a mixture of cycling enthusiasts - several from Sustrans, the UK's leading sustainable transport charity - local folk and people just wanting to do something constructive on a weekend. Come and help out in the forest, you would be very welcome, you'll have fun (probably get a bit dirty) and your efforts will be really appreciated.

Provisional dates are as follows: Sunday 22nd March, Sunday 5th April, Sunday 19th April.
For further details or to book a place contact martin.charlesworth@lancashire.gov.uk or visit www.forestofbowland.com/cons_volunteering.asp.

Lancashire and Westmorland hedgelaying grand prix

The Forest of Bowland leg of the Lancashire and Westmorland Grand Prix competition was held on Saturday 7th March at Chatburn near Clitheroe and attracted 40 hedgelayers from Lancashire, Cumbria and Yorkshire. Abilities ranged from expert to novice including 5 Young Farmers. The experts each tackled a 10 yard stint of hedge curving round a tight bend giving an extra level of difficulty. The finished results look marvellous and over 50 people dropped in to see the hedgelayers at work including a family from Belgium who were staying nearby and a local man who had been trained by Lancashire County Council to lay hedges and build dry stone walls just after the 2nd world war! Robert Bell was crowned champion hedgelayer on the day but the battle to be supreme champion continues to the wire with the last Grand Prix competition being held at Ellel on 21st March.

Excellent pictures of the event are on the Farmers Guardian website. See links below:
www.farmersguardian.com/story.asp?sectioncode=43&storycode=24917
www.farmersguardian.com/story.asp?storycode=24909

Businesses go green!

Forty tourism businesses attended the Green Ideas event at the Bowland visitor centre at Beacon Fell country park in January to find out about a range of innovative ideas and opportunities to help boost their business in an environmentally friendly way.

Organised by the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), the day provided information about things such as how to compost food waste, where to buy fair trade and eco-friendly cleaning products as well as ways of harnessing renewable energy.

The Lancashire Green Tourism project is designed to help tourism businesses and organisations that wish to operate in a more environmentally friendly manner to achieve a recognised green tourism award (the Green Tourism Business Award) and work together to develop sustainable tourism activities to promote Lancashire as a sustainable tourism destination.

Businesses came from all over the AONB and included accommodation providers, attractions, activity centres and village halls. All the businesses attending the event are interested in sustainability, and many of them are seeking, or already hold the Green Tourism Business Scheme award.

Local businesses owners found the event very useful and an excellent opportunity to meet up and share ideas with other local companies. Margaret Wright from Cobden Farm B&B said; 'This green day has been packed with invaluable information, and the Forest of Bowland is going from strength to strength in the way it is helping tourism businesses'

If you would like any further information about the project please contact hetty.byrne@lancashire.gov.uk or for details of sustainable tourism businesses visit www.lancashiregreentourism.com.

Sense of place workshops for Bowland artists

The AONB team have recently run 2 workshops to give local artists a greater understanding and appreciation of the Forest of Bowland AONB. Based on our successful Sense of Place Toolkit, and similar events run for tourism businesses, these workshops catered for 25 artists and were based at Slaidburn Village hall.

The workshops introduced participants to this beautiful area and gave people a chance to find out more about Bowland's special qualities. They were run as part of the preparation for Bowland Festival Arts, being co-ordinated by Green Close Studios and due to run from 1st May to 30th June. Please visit www.bowlandarts.co.uk.

The AONB team intend to run further Sense of Place workshops for tourism businesses later this year – keep an eye on our website for details, or contact Cathy Hopley on 01200 426433.

Landscape character assessment

We all know that Bowland is a protected landscape and is an area of 'Outstanding Natural Beauty' but what does this actually mean, and what is the landscape made up of?

Landscape Character Assessment is an objective way of looking at and classifying the landscape, it helps us to identify the types of landscape we have, and what makes if different from other places. It also helps us to identify features at risk, and how to manage the area more sensitively. As part of the UK's commitment to the European Landscape Convention Natural England and Lancashire County Council have provided funding to the AONB to commission a new Landscape Character Assessment (LCA) for the Forest of Bowland.

Work started back in the Autumn when Chris Blandford Associates were appointed as our consultants. They have been studying the existing LCA for Lancashire and drafting a new map at a larger scale just for the AONB area. This breaks the landscape down into a series of 'landscape character types' such as moorland plateaux, lowland farming with parkland, or wooded river valleys. Each of these types is mapped and the key features are defined. The landscape character types are then subdivided into areas, which vary according to locality (for example the moorland hills in Pendle are different from those around Slaidburn, and the Ribble Valley is different from the Lune Valley).

The 'typology' is then tested with a series of field surveys, which have unfortunately been constrained by our timetable and the harsh winter we have been experiencing. However, much of the initial work is now complete and this has been supplemented with two very successful stakeholder workshops held on 2nd and 3rd of February.

The consultants are now re drafting the map and typologies and identifying issues which may affect the landscape, such as climate change, development pressures and changes in farming. From this they will draw up a series of guidelines on how the land might be managed in order to maintain its character and local distinctiveness.

If you would like to find out more, the draft map is going to be available to view and comment on at the AONB offices in Clitheroe from mid February.
For details please contact Cathy Hopley or Tarja Wilson on 01200 426433.
For more details about Landscape Character Assessment and the European Landscape Convention see www.landscapecharacter.org.uk/lca.