Kent Downs Land Manager's Pack

The Kent Downs cover nearly a quarter of Kent, stretching from the White Cliffs of Dover up to the Surrey and London Borders. It is a diverse and vibrant landscape with its dramatic chalk cliffs, secluded dry valleys, ancient woodlands, traditional orchards and locally distinct villages. With such a variety of landscapes comes a variety of habitats, each supporting its own typical and important wildlife. The Kent Downs is designated an Area of Outstanding Natural beauty (AONB) in recognition of its national landscape value. For landowners in the Kent Downs AONB (and beyond), whether they own a garden, a small piece of land or even a farm, then this pack will help them understand the conservation value of that land as well as providing practical guidance for its management and enhancement. It has been created in an easy to use, on-line format, where information specific to the character area in which the landowner lives can be accessed and downloaded for free. Habitat management topics covered extend from woodland management, and include hedges, ponds, grasslands and orchards. Information provided is suitable both for the lay person, but also the more experienced land manager. Guidance extends to which species of plant and animal may do well in each character area. To this end there are contacts for organisations that can help with more specialist advice.

The pack has been specifically put together with the 13 Landscape Character Areas (LCAs) of the Kent Downs AONB in mind, but could easily be used more widely, as much of the advice is sufficiently generic to be valuable in other areas. Each LCA has its own identity, and the pack focuses on typical landscape features and those of flora and fauna which contribute to local distinctiveness. In this way, the pack can inform, advise and educate, to help land managers’ choose the most appropriate, representative and, hopefully, successful management end points for their own particular parcel of land.  

How to use the pack

The Kent Downs is divided into 13 Landscape Character Areas shown on the following map, based on their local distinctiveness, for example the Mid Kent Downs is characterised by orchards, hop gardens and parkland. Guidance sheets to each area can be downloaded by clicking on the map or on the contents page headings.

To download the guidance sheets for your area just click on the map below and then on the next map click where you live.

Guidance is available for the following categories:

• Ponds

• Rivers and riverside land

• Woodlands

• Hedgerows

• Chalk grasslands

• Meadow grasslands

• Orchards

• Marshes

• Heathlands

Each guidance sheet is concise, yet contains a multitude of useful information ranging from practical management tips, plant and animal species characteristic of the area, through to local and national organisations from where the reader can gain more advice.

Of course, no one guide can be totally comprehensive, or exhaustive in its coverage. However, by adopting a Landscape Character Area based approach, this Land Managers’ Pack does provide valuable pointers to concerned land-owners that help them target what is both typical of their area, and which habitats and species will thrive. Armed with these insights they can then make better educated decisions at maintaining their small part of the world in a sensitive, healthy and ecologically friendly way.