Improving Urban Sites

Our assignment for the Habitat Management course is to work as a group and come up with a management plan for an urban site in West Leeds. We visited the site at the weekend and it was all rather depressing - there is a lot of litter, the site is next to a major road and it doesn't look very cared for.

There are signs of invasive plants in the form of Himalayan Balsam and Japanese Knotweed that will need managing. Despite this though, in amongst a valley that provides overflow relief for the reservoir, we found good early pollinators such as butterbur and lesser celandine. There were also signs of fox dens in the dry valley.

There were a range of ducks on the reservoir such as mallard, coot, moorhen and the more exotic tufted duck. There was evidence of over-feeding by the locals though. Walking around the reservoir on the path, you could not seen the lake and some management of the trees to open up the views might help engage the locals more.

Some areas of the beck further down looked as though they could provide some good habitat, although the water itself was rather fast flowing. The woodland alongside the beck was mixed, though the plantation area and some older trees could do with some management to remove dangerously overhanging branches.  Thinning out the woodland to let in more light might also allow some more interesting ground flora to develop.

Another visit is needed as we still need to visit the site on the other side of the beck, but this will be an interesting and challenging project.