RHONDDA CYNON TAF ACTION FOR NATURE PLAN
Many of us work in units, offices and factories on industrial estates. In many cases these sites have considerable areas of mown lawn grassland and formal landscaping, and they can be rather dull in terms of biodiversity and wildlife inspiration.
However, that shouldn’t be the case. Many of our industrial estates have verges of mown species-rich grassland, relic areas of rhos pasture, brownfield grassland or areas of scrub and emerging woodland. With appropriate management and recognition these ‘green’ spaces can become wildlife rich and enriching for their daily lives of the human visitors.
If changes can be made to reduce the formal and landscape approach and embrace nature through ‘cut and collect’ grass management or natural scrub/woodland regeneration then these sites can become reservoirs of biodiversity and stepping stones for species movement.
There are also opportunities to incorporate biodiversity features into the fabric of the buildings (e.g. bat or swift boxes), to create wetlands to attenuate roof and car park run-off as well as to manage the sites better for both people and wildlife.
Associated Species
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Bird's-foot trefoil (roadside verges)
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Black knapweed (Roadside verges)
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Oxeye Daisy (Roadside verges)
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House Sparrows (Scrub and hedgerows)
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Hedgehogs
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Slow Worms (hedgebanks)
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Swallows?
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Truebug Gall Trioza centranthi (on red valerian on industrial estates)
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Gulls
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Bats
Brownfield Grasslands
A particular feature of industrial plateaus waiting for development, or the unloved edges or corners of industrial estates is species rich brown-field grasslands. The use of sub-soils, and the incorporation of concrete and aggregate, sometimes colliery spoil, into the fabric of these sites may seem an unpromising biodiversity formula. However, this same material is invariably nutrient poor, can often vary in pH from calcareous to acid and can be free draining or waterlogged or somewhere in-between. These factors pre-determine conditions that encourage natural colonisation of native and non-native species. The result can be a particularly diverse and interesting. Classic examples will include marshy grasslands with hard rush and lots of mosses, but also with a wealth of marshy grassland flowers such as ragged robin, meadow sweet, southern marsh orchids and even devil’s-bit scabious and sedges. In dry brownfield grasslands, the results can be startling with sheets of bird’s-foot trefoil growing on concrete footings with common blue and dingy skipper butterflies and six-belted clearwing moths, ox-eye daisies, red clover, bee orchids and black knapweed. Where sites are particularly calcareous there may be patches of kidney vetch with little self-contained colonies of the rare small blue butterfly.
