Environmental Stewardship is an agri-environment scheme run by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in England which aims to secure widespread environmental benefits. It was formally launched on 18 March 2005, although the first agreements did not start until 1 August 2005. If Environment Stewardship is taken up across large areas of the countryside it will help to: Improve water quality and reduce soil erosion – by encouraging management which can help to meet these aims; Improve conditions for farmland wildlife – including birds, mammals, butterflies and bees; Maintain and enhance landscape character – by helping to maintain important features such as traditional field boundaries; Protect the historic environment – including archaeological features and artefacts. The scheme, which replaces the older Countryside Stewardship and Environmentally Sensitive Area schemes, is composed of two levels: the Entry Level Stewardship (ELS), Organic Entry Level Stewardship (OELS) for Organic farms, Upland Entry Level Stewardship (UELS) comprising the lower levels; and the Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) for the upper level. Introduction Entry Level Stewardship aims to encourage large numbers of farmers and land managers (hereafter referred to as 'applicants') across England to deliver simple yet effective environmental management that goes beyond the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) requirement to maintain land in Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition. Payouts are from £30/hectare for Entry Level Stewardship to £60/hectare for Organic ELS, and last either five or ten years. The scheme is non-competitive and payments awarded if the threshold 30 points per hectare is achieved when averaged over the farm. Applicants are able to choose from a wide range of options (e.g. hedgerow management, low input grassland, buffer strips, management plans and options to protect soils), covering all farming types. Each option will earn 'points' (e.g. 100 points per hectare) towards their points total. Applications When applying for ELS, applicants will first have to prepare a simple record of features on their farm called the Farm Environment Record (FER). This is done using the Farm Environment Record map supplied by RDS. When they request their pre-filled application form and maps they are also given a ‘points target’ related to their farm size. There is no minimum holding size for entry into ELS. Applicants have the flexibility to decide how much of each option to have, and where to put them, until they have chosen enough to reach their ‘points target’. They need to mark the location