Habitat Creation

Kate Lloyd-Bostock - School of Plant Sciences, Reading University

This area is being restored as part of a PhD habitat creation project with the University of Reading. The project is taking an ecological approach by working with the unusual and extreme conditions of a landfill site, rather than trying to ameliorate them. Restoration to nature conservation is becoming a key strategy in the government's biodiversity programme in the UK. However research is needed to demonstrate and refine restoration techniques to make reclamation sites ecologically rich and stimulating for visitors. Degraded areas such as landfill sites offer a diversity of characteristics with enormous potential for interesting ecological restoration. The site at Carymoor will demonstrate this potential by creating a topographically complex area that uses a range of recycled spoils and subsoils to create different natural communities. The creation of wildlife habitats from waste throws up many opportunities for environmental education programmes and will set a new standard for sustainable landfill restoration.

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@ Carymoor Environmental Trust November 2005