I have spent a bit of time with several farmers over the last month. Farming in upland environments has never been easy but with aging populations of farmers, changes to subsidies and agri-environment schemes, and recent changes to inheritance tax with feels like a harder time than ever, all on top of a very wet summer. If you add into the mix large areas of your farm being covered with rock and not grass it is even harder.

Almost all of the farmers I have met that have limestone pavement on their land see themselves as custodians of these amazing habitats. They love the area they work in and while they might not get an awful lot of time to stand back and appreciate the pavements, they really do appreciate them. I was stood up on one of the highest pavements in the UK the other day with a farmer and the sun was shining, there was not a breath of wind and there was nobody else around. We discussed what an amazing place we were in and the incredible views, though we couldn’t help but mention that it isn’t always like that, this summer whenever I went up there is was in the wind and rain. I think there is a misconception that farmers don’t appreciate and want to conserve the amazing places that they live and farm, if anything they have more of a vested interest than the rest of us.

Many farmers can recall the pavements looking different when they were younger. Some of the pavements were much more extensive than they are now and many recall the sale or theft of stone from pavements before legislation was introduced that made the removal of stone from pavements illegal. Other farmers talk about how pavements have been lost under grass encroaching from the edges. Scrub and tree levels have changed a lot in some pavements and many farmers and others can recall areas of pavement that were much more open than they are now.

The lack of advice for farmers on how best to manage limestone pavement on their land can be really difficult. Even those who have lend protected for conservation can feel a bit lost as they try to work with conservation agencies to protect pavements. Through the Limestone Pavement Partnership we are trying to build the evidence base for different management options and while we are mostly working with conservation practitioners at the moment the work will have important implications for the farmer so understanding their perspective is really important.

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