Purpose

The former LCC PID&T Committee, at its
meeting on the 8th September 1993, resolved, in respect of
Biological Heritage Sites: 'that following consultation with
English Nature, Lancashire Wildlife Trust, District Councils and
other interested bodies, the County Planning Officer be authorised
to finalise the guidelines and sites list and keep them
updated'.
 
The document Biological Heritage Sites –
Guidelines for Site Selection sets out the rationale and qualifying
thresholds used to identify Biological Heritage Sites. Guidance
published by Defra identifies the need for local site systems to be
periodically updated and reviewed, with selection criteria based on
knowledge of the distribution and abundance of the resource
(national, regional and local), and trends for increase or decline
in abundance and distribution.
 
The Fungi section of the Biological Heritage
Sites Guidelines for Site Selection has not been revised since
publication in 1998.
 
Since that time there has been growing global
and national recognition of the importance of fungi rich
grasslands. Sites rich in grassland fungi are scarce and threatened
globally, and Britain has a high proportion of fungi rich
grasslands within Europe. A number of fungi species occurring in
this habitat are listed in the IUCN Global Red List of Threatened
Species.
 
Fungi rich grasslands are now included within
the suite of SSSIs (JNCC Guidelines for the Selection of Biological
SSSIs, 2018) which allows for the statutory designation of a
representative of the most important grassland fungi sites in
England.
 
However, this habitat and associated suite of
species is not covered by the 1998 Biological Heritage Sites
guidelines.
 
The BHS team have been working to increase
knowledge of the importance and distribution of fungi rich
grasslands in Lancashire, in order to establish a meaningful
threshold for selecting sites of at least County importance.
 
Based on this work and in liaison with Steve
Hindle (grassland fungi expert at the National Trust), the North
West Fungus Group, and BHS partner organisations, a BHS guideline
to select fungi rich grasslands of importance in Lancashire has
been written. This is presented in Appendix A.

Content

Debbie King, Head of Environment & Climate
on behalf of Jonathan Edwards, Director of Environment and Planning
took a decision to approve the addition of a BHS guideline to
select fungi rich grasslands of importance in Lancashire.