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Conservation

Conserving and Enhancing Wildlife in Towns and Villages: a guide for local community groups

Towns and villages can support a surprisingly wide range of wildlife habitats and species of local, or even national, conservation interest. Birds nest in trees, shrubs, or under the eaves of buildings. Hedgerows support mammals, insects and wild flowering plants. Bats roost in buildings, trees and underneath old bridges. Fungi, lichens and mosses grow on both wood and stone, while waterways support frogs, newts, insects, waterfowl and fish. The wildlife in a built up area may well be hidden, or may inhabit areas at the edge of a town or village.

The importance of ecologically friendly management of areas in or around towns or villages is recognised in a number of competitions, awards and grants, including the Heritage Council Wildlife and Local Heritage Grants and also the Tidy Towns Competition, organised by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. . If your community group is interested in applying for or /participating in either these, or similar grants or /competitions, this guide will be of relevance to you.

 Planning for wildlife conservation

It is recommended that your group prepare a plan for wildlife conservation and enhancement measures in your town or village. Set out where you want to start, what you want to achieve, and the work required to be done each year. . As in most things in life, progress will initially be slow and results may not appear until after a year or two. A plan will help focus the group on its long-term goals and not build up false expectations of quick success. . After a while, when results do appear, the plan will serve as a reminder as to how far the group has come since starting, and provide a template for future plans so that further success can be achieved. The Tidy Towns competition requires a three to five year strategic plan for all town and village development work; if your group is taking part, do not forget to include your work on wildlife conservation and enhancement, and the fact you are complying with national policy, such as the National Biodiversity Plan. This will allow the adjudicators see the work carried out over the year and the work planned for the future.

General Pointers

1. Leave things as they are: it is often easier to keep existing habitats than to create new ones. Identify your existing habitats (hedgerows, grassland etc) on a map and include it in your wildlife conservation and enhancement plan. This will allow you to point out where the existing habitats are and highlight the fact that you are retaining them when competing in competitions such as Tidy Towns.
2. Networks of wildlife sites are more ecologically valuable than isolated wildlife areas. Where possible create linking corridors by planting, retaining, or even improving hedges, or keeping a strip of long grass along the road verges.
3. Appropriate species: the choice of appropriate tree and shrub species is very important in urban areas where there are restrictions on space. Where possible, use native species. Trees and shrubs that grow naturally in the surrounding countryside are often the best choice for your town or village. They support local wildlife, thrive in your climatic and soil conditions, and require little maintenance. In general, non-native species support little wildlife. Some trees, such as the commonly used Leyland cypress and Lawson’s cypress, grow very fast, present maintenance problems, are visually intrusive and support little wildlife. They are not recommended for planting.
4. Invasive weeds: some non-native plant species are very invasive. These include Japanese knotweed and giant hogweed. If these weeds grow in your town or village, get specialist advice on how to remove them. Do not plant so-called ‘wild-flower’ seed mixes. If you manage your area in the right way, native local wild flowers will colonise it naturally. Never introduce any sort of pond plant into a stream or other natural watercourse. Let nature do the job herself!
5. Grass cutting: manage wide verges and amenity areas in a ‘hay meadow’ system with a first cut in June. Alternatively keep the grass cut until May and then leave it uncut until August. To demonstrate that this is a deliberate choice of management, close-cut a strip, one metre wide, around the uncut area. It is important to remove cut grass from areas managed for wildlife. Consider setting aside a screened area for composting. Composting units for smaller quantities of gardening refuse, including weeds and clippings, may be available from your local authority environmental awareness officer.
6. Interpretation: where appropriate, provide suitable interpretation to explain the wildlife interest of the area. Seek advice from your National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) conservation ranger and/or your local authority heritage officer.
7. Protected structures and archaeological sites must be identified in any plan or programme of works. Prior to undertaking any work around protected structures and archaeological sites the National Monuments Service of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government must be consulted. Contact your local authority heritage officer or conservation officer for further information.
8. Sites designated for nature conservation must be identified in any plan or work programme. These include Special Areas of Conservation (SACs), Special Protection Areas (SPAs) and proposed Natural Heritage Areas (NHAs). Your local NPWS conservation ranger must be consulted before any work is undertaken on sites designated for nature conservation.
9. Graveyards: before work is undertaken in a graveyard, ownership and legal status should be checked carefully. A licence is required from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government prior to undertaking any work on any graveyard that is a registered monument. Contact your local authority heritage officer or conservation officer for further information.
10. Expert advice and information on wildlife conservation and management is available, often at no cost, from a number of agencies and voluntary groups. Contact details are outlined at the end of this brochure.