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Habitat Management News

Lessons from landscape art

The creation and subsequent management of a piece of landscape art at Silverlink Country Park in North Tyneside has shown that there is an alternative to the usual revegetation of a reclaimed tip with a vigorous grass mix sown into imported topsoil. A large earthstar, designed by landscape architect Phil Barker and ecologist Tony Martin, has provided a visual feature for visitors and a teaching resource on the ecology of vegetation of relatively extreme conditions.

The star shape was created on a south-facing slope of a reclaimed tip using waste from local quarries. Graded sandstone was placed on the east side and limestone on the west, laid over compacted subsoil. Particle size increased towards the centre, with an increasing proportion of subsoil mixed in towards the margins. The areas were oversown with a very simple and cheap grass-dominated 'wild flower' mix, acid on one side, calcareous on the other. Locally collected wild-flower seed has subsequently been oversown when available. As a comparison, an adjacent low-nutrient grassland has been left to develop entirely by natural regeneration.

Vegetation is creeping inwards from the edges, with a very open habitat being maintained which is ideal for seedlings of stress-tolerant species. Having been deliberately designed as a feature with a specific shape, there have been no complaints of ugly, bare areas, and long-term management is minimal as there is no desire to keep the 'work of art' free from 'weeds'. One could imagine an extensive version being used for land reclamation on sites where topsoil is scarce, to create both a stunning landscape and a range of habitats of intrinsic value and for study. Further details of this project are available from Dr A D Martin, W A Fairhurst and Partners, P O Box 361, Newcastle upon Tyne NE99 1UD, or tel. 0191 221 0505.

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