Site Management

Gentleshaw Common is located in the southern part of the Cannock Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is the sixth largest area of lowland heath in Staffordshire covering 86 hectares.

Lowland heathland is rare across the world with the UK having about 20% of the global total making it even more endangered and scarce than rainforests and therefore a priority habitat for nature conservation.

The Common was designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) by English Nature in 1981 and it is also a grade 1 Site of Biological Importance (SBI). SSSI's are the country's very best wildlife and geological sites.

Gentleshaw Common SSSI forms part of an ongoing programme aimed at restoring part of the critical heathland link across Staffordshire and to prevent further fragmentation of the existing heathland sites that are managed by Lichfield District Council. These sites provide an important link to larger areas of heathland including Cannock Chase and Sutton Park.

The countryside teams work at Gentleshaw focuses primarily on restoring the habitat through a range of management practices, progressing to a level where a more sustainable form of management can be successfully introduced and maintained.

Higher Level Stewardship

To assist in meeting the our ongoing heathland management obligations, in early 2010 the countryside team was successful in securing Higher Level Scheme (HLS) funding under the Natural England administered Environmental Stewardship for Gentleshaw Common.

Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) aims to deliver significant environmental benefits in high priority situations and areas. This will provide a further 10 years of funding for habitat management at Gentleshaw Common.        

As the owner of the SSSI, Lichfield District Council is obliged to manage the site and maintain its special scientific interest.

A key component of this is work is increasing local awareness, understanding and involvement in the importance of Gentleshaw's heathlands and the need for active management of them.

The current ongoing management works include

• The felling of regenerating scrub (birch, pine and oak saplings) across Gentleshaw
• The treatment of areas infested with bracken.

The work is essential as the trees and bracken endanger the survival of rare heathland plants such as bilberry and cowberry, and prevent uncommon birds and reptiles from breeding on the heathland.

Such heathland management practices (the felling of trees and the gathering/grazing of bracken) have been enacted on Gentleshaw for thousands of years and without their continuation the low-lying heathland plants would soon be killed off by the trees and bracken overshadowing them and enriching the soil (heathland plants, such as Heather's and Bilberries, can only grow on nutrient poor soils).

Although these works may initially look like scenes of devastation they will be well worth it when the results start to reveal themselves. As can be noted from the ongoing works it is not our intention to remove all of the trees from Gentleshaw Common as they act as an invaluable source of food and cover for the many birds and mammals that are found on the site.

A large proportion of mature birch and Rowan have been retained for the significant landscape value that they hold. Work in the nearby vicinity is already proving to be successful with uncommon birds such as short eared owl, woodlark and nightjar gradually returning to the area. Works are limited to between November and the end of February due to birds nesting in the trees during the spring and summer months.

 In 2009 alone the Countryside Team:

• Cleared over 20 hectares of scrub growth across Gentleshaw.
• Treated 15 hectares of Bracken infestation on the site.
• Secured Gentleshaw's Higher Level Stewardship funding