Buglife’s brownfield work in Wales and beyond…..

Clare Dinham, Brownfield Stepping Stones Officer Buglife - The Invertebrate Conservation Trust

“Halt the extinction of invertebrate species and to achieve sustainable populations”

• Promoting the environmental importance of invertebrates

• Legislation and Policy © P R Harvey • Developing and disseminating knowledge about how to conserve Invertebrates

• Campaigning (e.g. Neonicitinoides)

• Practical conservation projects

• Outreach and raising awareness

© G Hitchcock

Brownfield Stepping Stones Projects

Project aims:

• Typically 3 year projects

• Collate baseline data and re-survey after habitat management/enhancement;

• Management to create/enhance OMH;

• Brownfield workshops for Planners, Ecologists, Developers etc

• Outreach – Bioblitzes, guided walks, training, volunteering

• Alert mapping to idntify sites containing UKBAP OMH

Current project areas:

England • Scunthorpe • Teesside • Peterborough • South Essex • Manchester (Pilot project)

Scotland • Falkirk

Wales • West Glamorgan (Swansea & Neath Port Talbot) Open Mosaic habitats: UKBAP priority habitat

Scrub for shelter Lots of nectar rich wildflowers & forage

Ditches & wet areas

Dead plant stems Mosses and lichens for over wintering

Warm south facing sandy bare ground to bask & burrow Long and short sword grass; dry and wet conditions AllWest of a Buzz Glamorgan revisited Stepping Stones for Wildlife

Over a third (37%) of the Medium and High potential sites destroyed or partially destroyed

The fast pace of development is reflected when the proportion of sites which have been granted planning permission is included=51% Bryn Tip LNR Cymmer Tip Kilvey Hill (SINC) Pluck Lake SINC Metallophyte Lichen Communities TATA STEEL - NPT

Margam Moors Project areas SSSI Project areas UK and Local BAP Priority invertebrates Shrill and Brown banded carder-bee Dune tiger beetle Dingy and Grizzled skipper Small blue Grayling

© P R Harvey

UK and Local BAP reptiles Slow worm, Common lizard, Adder and Grass snake

UK and Local BAP plants and birds e.g. Deptford pink, Skylark Case Study - Tata Steel, Scunthorpe Sand Martin Wetland • Continuous disturbance is needed to maintain bare ground/ early successional habitats

• Can occur through: - habitat management - industrial processes - public access

• Good assemblage of common, local and regionally scarce species associated with open sandy sites Stiletto fly (Thereva annulata) © Roger Key

• Species more closely associated with coastal sites with loose, mobile sands

Cranefly (Nephratoma crocata) © Roger Key Ruby tail wasp (Chrysis viridula) © Roger Key Green tiger beetle (Cicindela campestris) © Greg Hitchcock Case Study: Whittlesey Brick Pits – Peterborough Stepping Stones project

Case Study: Streaked bombardier (Brachinus sclopeta)

•UKBAP species •Thought to be extinct - rediscovered in 2005 on a London brownfield site near the Thames Barrier Park •This site has been developed for housing •~65 beetles have been translocated to a specially created mound of rubble within the development boundary •2 additional small populations have since been discovered nearby - 1 has been lost to development

Living Roofs for London’s Wildlife Abbey Hive, Camden

V&A LIVING ROOF PROJECT

Buglife in Wales Welsh Officer (funded by CCW) • part-time role based in Swansea but covering all of Wales; • working with LA’s and NGO’s; • targeted surveys at key sites; • Invertebrate Conservation conference 2014

Building partnerships • LA’s - Carmarthenshire, Cardiff, Vale of Glamorgan, Wrexham

• Brownfields, B-Lines, Buzzing projects, Crayfish….. www.buglife.org.uk