Project Details.

Part of an-going project by a local authority to improve the condition of an urban park covering 130 acres to enable a better system of air, water and nutrients that will help towards healthier lakes.

A couple of past issues included outbreaks of avian botulism (a serious neuromuscular disease affecting birds) and silt deposits causing the quality of water to decline.

The lake is home to a number of aquatic bird species - large amounts of Mute Swans and Canada Geese, but also more unusually Egyptian Geese, the rather timid Grey Heron and the occasional Cormorant.

Site Details.

The park has a varied landscape with woodland areas, amenity grassland, conservation areas, two lakes, two wildflower meadows and a mix of shrub beds throughout the park.

The work included removing more than 30,000 tonnes of sediment from the lakes. This was re-used to create a bankside habitat for wildlife with aquatic plants and wildflowers.

Scrub vegetation was replaced with a bio-diverse alternative, improvements made to existing pathways around the lakes and new viewing platform extending on to the lake was also built.

A third meadow was created along the boundary

Responsibilities and work undertaken.

Lead Ecologist and ECoW (Authoritative).Provide a supervisory service to ensure full legal and planning compliance, providing practical solutions to deal with ecology issues as they arose.

Undertake pre-works checks for protected / notable species including nesting & breeding bird checks.

Supervise habitat creation including topsoil removal and turf stripping.

Landscape profiling and planting supervision.

Overseeing site clearance.

Deliver toolbox talks to contractors