Creating sites for wildlife

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Creating sites for wildlife

Designing quarries and gravel pits to encourage and support wildlife is an art of the possible. The physical features of a site and adjacent areas (geology, hydrology, climate, aspect, existing wildlife etc.) will determine the habitats that can be created and the species that can be targeted.

Habitat creation is not make-over gardening, it is for the long term, and the designs need to work with the features of the site not against them if sustainable bio-diverse sites are to be established. See creating a diverse wetland and replicating the limestone daleside.

Photograph of a newly created shallow

Newly created shallows in a sand quarry.

Grading newly formed tallus slopes on benches in a limestone quarry.

Creation schemes have to start at some time, but it needs to be recognised that, on dry sites in particular, it can take many years before the complexities and richness of an established site have developed. See timescales. Careful management in the early years is very important but it is the long-term continuity of a sustainable management regime that will build a richness of wildlife. See managing sites for wildlife and natural succession.

Sites with mosaics of habitats provide some of the better areas for wildlife. For example, edges of woodland glades, swamp at the edge of open water and field margins all provide a mixture of conditions that wildlife needs to feed and breed. Artificial niches for wildlife, such as bird boxes and otter holts, may also be created to substitute for the natural features that may still be lacking in a ‘young’ site.

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