BAP

Lincolnshire is one of Britain's most important agricultural counties and farming has been the dominant land use here for many centuries. In the south of the county there is a high concentration of Grade 1 soils (peat and silt based) and these support the diversification of farming from purely arable and mixed farm production to horticulture, with a range of crops from brassicas to bulbs. The field systems here are large and tend to be edged by dykes, drains and other watercourses in the open fen landscape.

Elsewhere in the county the soil is poorer in agricultural terms, with chalk and limestone dominating the geology, for example in the uplands of the Wolds and in the south-west part of the county, which has patches of calcareous grassland. Other grasslands lie along the coastal plain where there is a concentration of grazing marsh with some traditional summertime grazing and winter-time waterlogging. All of these farming systems are skirted by linear features (such as hedges) that have the potential to act as wildlife corridors.

Vision for Lincolnshire's Farmland and Grassland

• An actively and sustainably farmed countryside that benefits biodiversity and the farming community. Habitat diversity has increased.
• Land use is a mosaic of productive land, within healthy ecological networks of semi-natural and managed habitats, which can meet food supply demands without the loss of associated species.
• The decline in important habitats has been halted and reversed and habitats are restored and created on a landscape scale, with appropriate traditional management techniques in place - especially the use of livestock.
• Hedges, hedgerow trees, watercourses and farm ponds are managed for biodiversity, with suitable protection from farm operations. Linear habitats are encouraged and sympathetically managed as biodiversity corridors and stepping stones.
• Buffer zones and other measures are adopted to reduce erosion and pollution of the wider environment.
• Use of pesticides and other chemical/nutrient inputs have been reduced, resulting in less diffuse pollution.

Action Plans

• Arable field margins
• Grazing marsh
• Hedgerows and hedgerow trees
• Lowland calcareous grassland
• Lowland meadows (NEW!)

• Bats
• Farmland birds

Details can be downloaded from the Documents section.