CGS19: Manage wet grassland for wintering waders and wildfowl
Source: gov.uk (2025-09-10)

What you must do to get paid for this CSHT action and advice on how to do it.

This action is part of Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT). You must read the CSHT guidance (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/countryside-stewardship-higher-tier-csht) before you apply.

Duration

5 years

How much you’ll be paid

£547 per hectare (ha) per year

Action’s aim

This action’s aim is that there’s wet grassland with:
- in-field wet areas, including standing water and bare and muddy areas during the autumn and winter months
- the year’s grass growth removed by autumn, leaving some tussocky grass to develop, so there are suitable sward heights and structure for wintering waders and wildfowl
- appropriate rush cover for the wintering waders and wildfowl
- any historic or archaeological features protected from damage
- a good cover and range of flowering grass and wildflowers from late spring and during the summer months if your land is priority habitat species-rich grassland
The purpose of this is to:
- provide suitable wet grassland feeding and roosting habitat for wintering waders and wildfowl
- support other features such as historic or archaeological features, ditches of high environmental value and areas of species-rich wet grassland
You can use this action to manage:
- existing grassland
- grassland that’s being restored or created for wintering waders and wildfowl
Where you can do this action

You can do this action on eligible land located below the moorland line that’s one of the following:
- priority habitat coastal or floodplain grazing marsh (https://magic.defra.gov.uk/magicmap.aspx?&startTopic=GreyRasters&chosenLayers=baseIndex,CSTcfgmarsh&box=-1081464:-115718:1929075:1363366&useDefaultbackgroundMapping=false) which supports wintering waders and wildfowl – it does not need to be mapped on the Priority Habitat Inventory (PHI) layer on MAGIC
- other wet grassland which already supports wintering waders and wildfowl
- has high potential for the restoration of wet grassland for wintering waders and wildfowl
You can also do this action on arable or temporary grassland located below the moorland line which has high potential for creation of wet grassland for wintering waders and wildfowl.

If you’re restoring or creating grassland, you must provide your Natural England adviser with:
- a map showing where restoration (from permanent grassland to grassland habitat) or creation (from arable or temporary grassland to grassland habitat) will take place
- soil analysis results including the soil available phosphorus (Olsen P method) and the soil potassium status – this is only required if you’re intending to reintroduce wildflowers. Soil analysis must have been carried out within the last year, or within the last 5 years if there have been no fertiliser applications or increase in stocking levels since the last soil analysis.
Eligible land

You can do this action on land that’s:
- an eligible land type
- registered with an eligible land cover on your digital maps
- declared with a land use code (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/land-use-codes-rural-payments) which is compatible with the eligible land cover
Available area you can enter into this action

Total or part of the available area in the land parcel.

Rotational or static action

This action is static. This means you must do it on the same location each year of the action’s duration.

What to do

Your Natural England adviser will assess your land. They’ll work with you to adapt and agree the activities you must do to achieve this action’s aim. All mandatory activities will be set out in your agreement document.

To get paid for this action, you must:
- maintain or restore the appropriate hydrology and provide wet conditions for wintering waders and wildfowl to feed and roost
- make sure there are areas of standing water and wet features during autumn and winter
- manage the grassland by grazing, cutting or a combination of both to provide the right vegetation height and structure for the target birds
- keep boundary hedges short
- protect historic and archaeological features
The advice you’re given from Natural England is specific to your land which means (where relevant) you may also need to:
- manage ditch water levels so they are high enough to provide standing water and muddy areas during the autumn and winter – you can apply for CWT3: Manage ditches of high environmental value to pay for this
- maintain wet features, including gutters and scrapes, to provide muddy areas for waders and wildfowl to feed – you can apply for CSP11: Manage scrapes and gutters supplement to pay for this
- keep scrapes and gutters wet using water control structures
- keep vegetation around scrapes and gutters short with some taller tussocks
- remove livestock at certain times of the year
- restrict topping to areas and time periods set out in your agreement
- control scrub, rushes and other tall or competitive plant species to achieve the right vegetation conditions for target birds
- maintain or restore a mix of high value indicator plants if the grassland is a species-rich priority habitat – some indicator species will be frequent or occasional across the site, (as set out in your agreement)
- establish additional plant species if agreed with your Natural England adviser
- follow an agreed wildfowling strategy and record bag returns
You must not:
- apply fertilisers or farmyard manure (unless agreed with your Natural England adviser)
- apply any other manures, digestate or any other industrial by-product including paper waste
- apply pesticides – you may be able to use herbicides to spot-treat or weed-wipe for the control of injurious weeds, invasive non-native plant species, nettles or other plants if this has been agreed with your Natural England adviser
- supplementary feed except for the use of mineral blocks or other forms of feed agreed by your Natural England adviser
- carry out mechanical operations or other activities that may cause significant disturbance to birds during the breeding season or the autumn and winter (this does not include ditch maintenance)
- work on ditches between April and August – this may also apply to surface water features
- harrow, roll, supplementary feed or allow bare soil on archaeological or historic features
- allow additional scrub to encroach on archaeological or historic features
- plough, cultivate or reseed, unless this is part of an agreed sward creation and enhancement plan
- carry out drainage works without written permission from your Natural England adviser
- carry out land management activities in a way that causes poaching or overgrazing
When to do it

You must do this action each year of its duration.

Evidence to keep

You must keep evidence to show what you have done to complete this action. If it’s not clear that you have done this action in a way that could reasonably be expected to achieve its aim, the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) may ask for this evidence. You must supply the evidence if they ask for it.

Other actions or options you can do on the same area as this action

You can do the following actions or options on the same area in a land parcel as this action.

Some actions or options can only be done on the same area if they’re done at a different time of year to this action.

You can do the following actions or options on the eligible boundaries of a land parcel entered into this action:
- CSHT actions: CWT3, CHRW4
- SFI 2024 actions: CHRW1, CHRW2, CHRW3, BND1, BND2, WBD10
- SFI 2023 actions: HRW1, HRW2, HRW3
- CS option BE3 (management of hedgerows)
Consents, permissions and licensing requirements

To apply for this action, you’ll need:
- Scheduled Monument Consent (https://historicengland.org.uk/advice/planning/consents/smc/) from Historic England for any work on scheduled monuments
- consent from Natural England for any activity on land designated as a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/protected-areas-sites-of-special-scientific-interest#get-consent-to-carry-out-operations-on-your-land)
You may need to:
- agree an implementation plan or feasibility study with your Natural England adviser
- obtain necessary consents from the Environment Agency, Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA) or Internal Drainage Board (IDB) before starting any work
- get a wildlife licence (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/wildlife-licences) from Natural England if your activities affect a protected species or their habitat
- get advice from your Natural England adviser if you have other archaeological or historic features on your agreement land
All archaeological and historic features (including scheduled monuments) are identified in your Historic Environment Farm Environment Record (HEFER).

If you’re a tenant, it’s your responsibility to check whether your tenancy agreement allows you to complete what’s required in the actions you choose. You may need your landlord’s consent.

Capital grants to support this action

If you need to complete an implementation plan or a feasibility study before you apply, you can apply for capital grants plans funding (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/capital-items-guidance-for-applicants-and-agreement-holders#capital-grants-plans).

You can also apply for capital items (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/capital-items-guidance-for-applicants-and-agreement-holders) to help you achieve the action’s aims. Your Natural England adviser will discuss eligible capital items with you.

Advice to help you do this action

The following optional advice may help you to do this action. Your agreement document will set out all the activities you must do.

Choosing a site

You can manage wet grassland for wintering waders and wildfowl if it:
- has large areas of open land, 10 hectares or more
- has few trees or hedgerows (2m or less in height)
You can use MAGIC (https://magic.defra.gov.uk/home.htm) to check if you have wet grassland such as coastal and floodplain grazing marsh. The target birds for this action are:
- geese – barnacle goose, brent goose, bean goose, pink-footed goose or white-fronted goose
- swans – whooper swan or Bewick’s swan
- ducks – gadwall, widgeon, teal, shoveler or pintail
- wading birds – black-tailed godwit, curlew, golden plover, snipe, lapwing or redshank
For best results:
- use this action alongside other wet grassland, low input grassland or target features actions over a wide area – potentially linking with other landowners
- use this action within, next to or linking Special Protection Areas (SPAs), sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) or other sites that already support wintering waders and wildfowl
Sites which may be unsuitable for this action include:
- sites with an unreliable water supply
- improved, intensively managed grassland for geese, which is cut for silage and receives more than 50kg per ha of inorganic nitrogen fertiliser
- sites with botanical interest, where hydrological changes could damage plant communities
You can create or restore wet grassland by establishing a sward using:
- GR1: Create or restore grassland habitat
- GR2: Standard seed mix for grassland habitat
- GR3: Floristically enhanced seed mix for grassland habitat
Maintaining and restoring wet conditions

Rainfall, winter flooding, ditches and other watercourses, springs or groundwater can help maintain wet conditions. In drier parts of the country, you may need to actively manage your water levels. You’ll need to be able to do this without affecting neighbouring land.

You’ll need to provide the right conditions for wintering birds between at least early November and late February. Maintain shallow surface flooding, ideally with:
- a range of depths from 1cm to 30cm and up to 50cm on larger sites
- water cover of 5% to 30% of the area, which can change naturally to prevent stagnation
- muddy edges for waders to feed in
You can use scrapes and gutters to provide areas of open water and bare, wet soil for waders to feed. You can create them using the capital item WN2: Creation of scrapes and gutters. You can maintain existing scrapes and gutters using CSP11: Manage scrapes and gutters supplement.

Where possible, avoid large areas of grassland being under water. If too much of the soil is flooded for long periods, food sources like earthworms will be lost.

If the grassland also supports breeding waders, gradually reduce surface flooding in the spring to 5% to 10% of the area, or the area set out in your agreement, to stop nests being washed out. On peat and permeable soils, the water table would ideally be within 20cm of field level.

If your wet grassland is not typical, your Natural England adviser may need to adapt this advice to your site.

Achieving the correct sward height in winter

Graze and cut during the summer and autumn to provide short open grassland of around 5 to 15cm tall for winter and spring. This will benefit grazing wildfowl like swans, geese and wigeon.

Keep some rushes or tussocky grass, like tufted hair grass. They provide shelter for invertebrates and amphibians, and camouflage for birds like snipe. You’ll need to manage non-jointed rushes (https://defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/manage-rushes-in-grassland/) like soft and hard rush if they cover more than 30% of the land.

If your wet grassland is not typical, your Natural England adviser may need to adapt this advice to your site.

Grazing or cutting

You can usually manage land in this action by cutting for forage and aftermath grazing, or by grazing only. Grazing with cattle is ideal, as they create a mix of longer and shorter vegetation and bare ground. Their dung helps maintain invertebrate populations. Invertebrates are an important food source for chicks in the spring. Remove livestock in autumn or winter when the ground is wet.

You can maintain short open swards before winter by cutting or topping between August and October. Do this either where grazing has not removed the season’s grass growth, or to help manage rushes.

You may need to remove cuttings by gathering or baling to prevent build-up of litter and nutrients, particularly on areas of species-rich grassland.

Managing weeds and rushes

You can manage weeds and rushes by cutting, grazing, spot treatment and weed wiping. The use of herbicides may not be allowed on some sites. Make sure you use spot treatment and weed wiping equipment correctly, and graze down the wildflowers and grasses so that the rushes and weeds can be treated without touching the non-target plants.

Boundary hedgerows, trees and scrub

Wet grassland birds generally require open grassland with clear ‘sight lines’. They tend to avoid fields with trees, scrub and hedges, where the risk of predation can be higher. If fields with hedges do support waders and wildfowl, maintain the hedges at less than 2 metres high so that birds have good visibility of predator species. Manage scrub and trees so that in-field cover is less than 5% and cover over the ditches is less than 5%, or as set out in your agreement.

Disturbance from recreational activities

It’s important to minimise disturbance during the autumn and winter, so that waders and wildfowl can spend as much time as possible feeding. Regular disturbance will result in them not being able to take on enough food to maintain their body weight during the cold winter months, which can result in reduced breeding success. This means it’s best to avoid recreational activities between October and February.

Sustainable wildfowling

You may be able to carry out, or allow others to carry out, sustainable wildfowling as long as it does not cause significant disturbance to the target birds and is agreed with your adviser. Wildfowling is a recreational sporting activity that involves the pursuit and shooting of wild ducks, geese and waders which spend the winter period in the UK. The sport is typically carried out on wet grassland between 1 September and 31 January.

You need a good working understanding of local tidal patterns and bird habits so you can intercept birds whilst they naturally move between their daytime feeding and night-time roosting areas, rather than deliberately disturbing them from their resting or feeding places.

Plan and limit visits to avoid overharvesting and frequent disturbance.

Complete bag returns on the same day of shooting to ensure bag records and harvest level data is accurate.

It is good practice to create temporal and spatial refuges. Temporal refuges are regular times of the day or week when no shooting takes place. Spatial refuges are areas of the site, which are appropriately located and managed, where no shooting takes place.

It is not appropriate to:
- release wildfowl within your site
- supplementary feed to attract waterbirds to your site
Use this wildfowling strategy template (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wildfowling-strategy-template) to plan wildfowling activities on your site.

Rules you must follow when wildfowling

You must familiarise yourself with the law before wildfowling. There are a variety of methods for taking wild birds that are illegal under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

Wildfowling must not cause a significant or serious disturbance to the population of a species. You must not carry out activities which:
- change the local distribution of the population
- change the ongoing size of the population
- reduce the ability of the species to survive, breed or rear their young
Find out more in AEWA’s (Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds) guide on managing waterbird disturbance (https://www.unep-aewa.org/en/document/managing-waterbird-disturbance-short-guide-wetland-managers-draft-2).

Responding to climate change

Read Natural England’s publication: ‘Adaptation for habitats in Environmental Land Management Schemes’ (https://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/file/5673659512127488) to help you consider your general response to climate change. You must continue to follow the mandatory activities for this CSHT action.