MORE than £700,000 has been spent on hedgerows and dry stone walling restoration in Cumbria over the past year.

Natural England’s Higher Level Stewardhip (HLS) scheme has allocated around £712,000 to farmers and landowners in the county to carry out the important work.

Between April 2008 and March 2009, this funding has enabled the restoration of 30km of hedgerows and 7km of hedge planting as well as 12km of dry stone walls.

Environmental Stewardship, which was launched in March 2005 and is and open to all farmers and land managers, aims to deliver environmental benefits through agriculture and conserve wildlife, maintain and enhance landscape quality and character, protect natural resources, and promote public access to the countryside.

Ewan Nugent, delivery leader for Natural England’s agri-environment programme, said: “The North West region’s allocation of funding for new HLS applications has been greatly increased this year and Natural England staff assessing Environmental Stewardship applications are now in a position to take a much broader range of features into consideration than in previous years.

“We now want to increase the uptake of environmental management to deliver more significant environmental benefits.”

To register an interest in the scheme contact Natural England on 01768 860700.