Being aware of brownfield habitats

Areas with previous human use, for example for industry or housing, can often be biodiverse sites, especially where they have been left with minimal human activity for some time.

Jane Sebire

At a city scale, local authorities need to be aware of these sites and their value and to reflect them in green infrastructure plans and in development plans and decisions. The most important sites should be protected and any redevelopment should seek to incorporate biodiversity.

At a site scale, value should be attached to emerging habitats on brownfield sites. Opportunities to either incorporate these young habitats as part of future development on the sites or consider the sites themselves as potential future nature reserves should be explored.

Photo by Andrew Pescod

New Ferry Butterfly Park

Near Birkenhead on the Wirral, New Ferry Butterfly Park is a two hectare urban nature reserve developed on a former railway coal yard, goods yard and water softening plant. Its acidic, calcareous, nutrient poor and nutrient rich grasslands reflect the different industrial substrates of the past. It also features two ponds, species-rich hedgerows, scrub, hazel coppice and artefacts of the brick-making and railway eras.

Over 26 species of butterfly have been recorded with 16 species breeding on site. The park is now a site of biological importance and is much used for education by Cheshire Wildlife Trust.

Priority: help wildlife adapt to climate change
Tags: green infrastructure, cities and towns