New techniques for heathland restoration
Transforming plantation into precious wet heathland habitat - Exmouth, Devon
In just 2 short weeks this previous area of plantation was transformed from a dense block of softwood and re-gen trees that barely allowed day light to reach the ground was cleared of all trees and saplings to effect change from attempted plantation back into precious wet heathland. Utilising our extremely capable JCB Excavator and tree shear the trees were cut and placed into neat windrows where we were able to froward them off to a central location for future processing. In this instance the trees would normally be cut by hand, stacked and then burnt on site. looking forward into new techniques and practices we had the opportunity to look to recover energy and some cost from the site material. ultimately the end goal is return exiting habitat back to its former glory but by applying this method not only did we clear an unprecedented area in a very small ecologically restrained window but we have been able to see energy gain from the inevitable carbon release or during, except in this instance the material was to be chipped and taken away as mixed whole tree chip to be used for biomass fuel.
Protecting precious peatland
Channel infill and erosion protection on peatland site - Canford heath, Dorset
As part of a larger Doreset Peatland Partnership project this was just one of the many sites we delivered. much like a lot of these heathland sites they are an abundance or varying habitats but none rarer in these areas than the small pockets of peat. With peat being such a fundamental carbon store here on earth it's best to protect it to prevent release. In our efforts to protect the peat here first the ground had to be examined and searched for UXO (unexploded ordnance) potential, this was a combination of searching and flailing in a strategic method utilising our LGP excavator to clear a suitable access track into the main block of works whilst working around not only the environmental constraints but those also imposed with regard to the high pressure gas main and the rising sewer main which both went through site. once clearance work along the main channel line was complete we could then undertake the removal of several mature Scotts pine trees to further increase the amount of water in the peat. Certain trees were retained for there excellent hunting perch potential for local raptors and others got "ringbarked" to speed up the monolithing process. Now that the main drainage channel was exposed it was clear what needed to be infilled, protected and re connected with the current flood plain to allow for better flood mitigation and further habitat creation. The site was awash with new peat bunds, site won timber structures and other pooling techniques to slow flows and create as much standing water as possible whilst protecting the precious peatland found on site.
