Subject Committee: Countryside

Stonegrave minster church SAM and associated earthworks, N. Yorks (permission: N. Yorkshire CC, G Falkingham)

The Countryside Committee has a facilitating role, servicing the needs of the members and committee of the ALGAO in all matters concerning archaeology and the countryside.

Sustainable development is an important objective in rural as well as urban settings. The Association promotes good practice in sustainable and integrated archaeological and countryside conservation management, e.g. through improved sites and landscape management techniques. To this end the Committee will encourage the adoption of good practice at all levels and will seek to promote integrated sites management works undertaken by members as exemplars of good practice. Such emphasis will be extended into the wider public arena to raise awareness and promote further the links between archaeology and the landscape.

It also aims to ensure early and effective input into the development of government policy and advice to ensure that management of archaeological sites and historic landscapes is considered as an intrinsic component of wider countryside management. The Association works with other countryside conservation agencies to achieve this objective.

Committee papers (members only)

Agri-environment

England

To assist members and others involved in agri-environment schemes, ALGAO has produced a number of documents and briefing notes relating to:

• Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) (including completion of FEPs and targetting Environmental Stewardship
• Energy Crop Scheme applications (completion of responses to applications)
• Entry Level Stewardship (ELS)
• Uplands Entry Level Stewardship (UELS)

The England agri-environment page also provides links to other useful documents, including the Natural England package of information on ES, 2012.

Links

Guidance documents

• Guidance for Organisers of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Beacons English Heritage and Natural England have produced this guidance to help organisers when choosing beacon sites and to direct them to sources of advice in order to prevent inadvertent damage to important historic and natural features.

A number of guidance documents are available from the HELM (Historic Environment Local Management) website:

• Farming the Historic Environment series
• Mineral Extraction and Archaeology: a Practice Guide: prepared by the Minerals and Historic Environment Forum of which ALGAO is a member.