RHONDDA CYNON TAF ACTION FOR NATURE PLAN
1.
Increase area of grassed areas managed for wildflowers
Work with partners such as housing associations, private companies and health sector to encourage more wildflower grass management. Continue to increase the number of grass verges managed for wildflowers year on year, via public engagement and signage to explain their benefit for pollinators.
2.
Greening the grey
Integrate green infrastructure in our towns and villages to increase habitat in urban areas and tackle environmental issues such as flooding, pollution and urban heat island e.g. retrofitting rain gardens, green roofs.
3.
Tree Management Policy
Set up and implement a tree policy which illustrates best practice to be followed throughout. Promote appropriate tree planting (right tree, right place) and have a programme in place to replace old, failing stock. Highlight the benefits of using hedgerow planting to connect habitats.
Work with Highways to revise the guidelines/ standards in relation to tree pit sizes. Currently too restrictive thus over time, larger, mature trees will be lost and will not be replaced.
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4.
Love Your Trees
Run a ‘Love your Trees’ campaign to encourage people to value their local trees and scrub areas, and to support and assist with the management of trees for the long term. Urban trees in particular are hugely valuable for residents, not just to bring wildlife close to home but also to mitigate climate change. But urban trees also suffer from vandalism and inappropriate management.
5.
Interpretation
Install signs on key sites describing their value for nature and the work of the Local Nature Partnership. For example, on Local Nature Reserves and Discovery Gateway sites as part of the Valleys Regional Park.
6.
Tackle litter and garden waste issues
Awareness raise and undertake activity to instil behaviour change around the issue of litter dropping and garden waste dumping.
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7.
Awareness Raising
Raise awareness to tackle key urban issues such as fly tipping of garden waste, habitat connectivity, nature isn't neat and enjoying outdoor space responsibly.
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8.
Promote best practise management in the built environment
i.e. reduced use of peat-based products, tree and shrub maintenance and management and control of litter and dumping.
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9.
Making homes for nature
Encourage installation of bird and bat boxes, in particular, swift and house sparrow on industrial estates, on private housing and on the local authority estate, and in local parks and open spaces in conjunction with community groups.
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10.
Promote the use of green outdoor space
To encourage new opportunities for contact with nature. Examples could include walk routes and picnic benches near workplaces, use of Living Landscape sites for social prescribing, Cwm Taf Nature Network, mental health projects, tackling inequality of access.
11.
Stop the chemicals
Phase out the use of herbicides and pesticides in the local authority estate and explore alternatives instead.
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12.
Multiple benefits for climate and nature
Use solutions to problems that have multiple benefits for climate and nature e.g. All soffit insulation projects include sparrow terraces/ swift boxes/ bat boxes etc. Write this up
Urban Habitats in RCT
Most people in the County Borough live in an urban environment. Although countryside may be close-at-hand, most of us live in terraced streets and housing estates, with tarmac roads, small gardens, schools, factories, supermarkets, playing fields and allotments. Here, wildlife is sometimes less obvious, but it can be fostered and encouraged to enrich and benefit all of us in our daily lives.
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And there is a surprising amount of wildlife in our urban areas, in part, because most of us live close to a very biodiverse countryside. We are rarely further than a brisk 15-minute walk from an area of superb valleyside ffridd, woodland, rhos pasture or grassland. Many settlements are on rivers or streams, which provide natural corridors for wildlife as well as habitat for species such as otter. There are also wildlife refuges on road verges, or embankments and in parks, gardens, and other open spaces. We are particularly well endowed with urban tree cover. This close relationship between our towns and villages and the high quality, biodiversity rich landscapes surrounding them is a feature of RCT, but is unusual elsewhere.
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Urban areas also provide important habitats for some species, such as hedgehogs, bats, house martins and swifts. They provide most people with their first introduction to local wildlife, whether it is the dawn chorus or an owl hooting at night, ducks on the river or butterflies in the park. Many actions relating to urban areas are set out in the How Can I Help? Section, the objective for this Action Plan is to identify more strategic and technical actions to support wildlife across our urban areas.
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There are some specific urban habitats that are important in Rhondda Cynon Taf and some urban species where particular actions are required.
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Sustainable Drainage for Park Lane School
When it rains on hard surfaces, especially on sloping ground, the water sheets off and can cause localised flooding and damage. Where rain falls on natural ground, especially if there are a mix of plants with roots of different depths, the water is slowed down and more of it is able to infiltrate into the soil.
Engineers identified a drainage issue at Park Lane School, Aberdare and their suggestion was to create a Sustainable Drainage system (SUDS) instead of trying to pipe the water away. There was space between the school and the park for a large shallow bowl to be created which could store the water in times of surface water flood. The shape was created to allow the grassland to be managed with ‘cut and collect’ machinery and allow the area to be restored as rhos pasture.
To aid this process thousands of locally grown devil’s bit scabious plants have been added. These plants are an important part of the lifecycle of the rare marsh fritillary butterfly. In years to come, this site could be an important drainage feature for the school, an area on their doorstep for outdoor learning and play and a biodiversity asset as well.