Reed All About It!

Biodiversity Action Plans (BAPs) have become an integral element of quarry restoration. By working in partnership with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) on their BAP at Langford Quarry in Nottinghamshire, Tarmac are using the site’s unique geographical layout to create the biggest reed bed in the Midlands.

At their 175ha quarry near Newark, Nottinghamshire, Tarmac have been working side by side with the RSPB to create an 80–100ha reed bed with the aim of providing a new habitat for hundreds of species. In the coming months, management of the second phase of the reed bed will be handed over to the RSPB.  

The RSPB identified Langford Quarry, which lies close to the river Trent, as an ideal location to create a reed bed and worked with Tarmac to design a BAP priority habitat to support species such as bitterns, avocets, water voles and otters.

Michael Copleston, RSPB site warden at Langford, explained the location’s significance: ‘The site offers great connectivity to the river Trent, allowing future migration of key wildlife into the habitat and linking up a series of important conservation areas along the length of the river.’

George Elliott, restoration manager at Tarmac, added: ‘Through quarrying, the ground level has been reduced by 8m. To maintain the wet conditions that are necessary to create a reed bed, it is only necessary to restore the land to less than half of the original ground height. This leaves a more naturalistic reed bed environment and also significantly reduces the number of vehicle movements required to move material in to backfill the area.’

Tarmac have been working at Langford Quarry since 1989 and envisage another six years of quarrying at the site, within a further two extraction phases. Tarmac and the RSPB began work on creating a reed bed  six years ago when quarrying was completed on the 11ha phase-one area. Tarmac’s contractors monitored water levels and sculpted the ground into islands and channels to form the right environment to support reed growth, while the RSPB oversaw the painstaking process of growing new reeds from seed.  

Following the completion of quarrying at the 15ha phase-two site, over 700 reed turves (1.5m3 clumps of established reed) have been moved from that first reed bed to encourage growth in the newly landscaped phase two area. Over the next two to three years, these roots and fresh shoots will spread, doubling the present amount of wet reed bed at Langford.

To manage water levels across the site, Tarmac will build a sluice to connect the reed bed with the river Trent. This will allow excess water to flow from the reed bed into the river, maintaining ideal conditions for all the wildlife.  

‘There’s been a really positive and open partnership between Tarmac and the RSPB throughout the restoration process,’ said Michael Copleston. ‘They have really taken the vision on board and run with it. Not only has the company shown genuine commitment to creating a new habitat, many of the individual personalities involved in the scheme over a number of years have fostered a real passion for what we hope to achieve. This means we have worked closer with Tarmac on a day-to-day basis than has been typical with other partnership organizations.’

Planning regulations dictate five years of mandatory aftercare following quarry restoration, and the RSPB will take on this responsibility on Tarmac’s behalf. They have already been working on phase one, and phase two is due to be handed over soon. Then, once agreements are finalized, Tarmac will buy the site from their current landlord, Trinity College, Cambridge, and sell it at a reduced rate to the RSPB.

When the restoration across the full site is complete, the reed bed will cover 80–100ha, making it not only the biggest reed bed in the region, but also among the 10 largest in the UK. Tarmac are currently investigating the possibility of extending the quarry site, which could allow for an even larger reed bed.  

‘This is a fairly unique project, owing to the significant size of the reed bed we’re creating and the particular circumstances of the site which made it ideal for this type of project,’ said George Elliott. ‘Each restoration project has to be conducive to the characteristics of the individual site, but finding the right solution for the right site can deliver restoration that is ecologically important and commercially sound. We would certainly look to undertake a similar project and a similar partnership again.’

The RSPB works with 30 volunteers to manage the site and develop key conservation skills. They put in the considerable manpower needed to plant 100,000 new reed seedlings each year.  The team also carries out habitat-management jobs, such as scrub and willow removal, as well as surveying the various flora and fauna at Langford.

‘It’s early days, but the results of the reed bed are already really exciting,’ said Mr Copleston. ‘We’ve had marsh harriers using it in the summer months – a bird of prey which is rarely spotted in Nottinghamshire. As the site has developed, there have been records of a wide range of species, such as little ringed plovers, long-eared owls, endangered water voles and we’ve already noted about 20 different species of dragonflies using the habitat. There’s such huge potential at the site and it is developing rapidly as a nature reserve.

‘Recently we’ve been delighted to have four avocet chicks hatch on the site. Avocets are the RSPB emblem and we have monitored their numbers since they became extinct as a breeding species in Britain in 1842. Their numbers have grown in the past 60 years, but this is still only the second time avocets have been bred in the county.’

Ultimately, the RSPB hopes the endangered bittern will use the reed bed. The bittern population in Britain fell to just 11 booming males in 1997 and work such as the EU Life projects in the early part of this century has been targeted towards reversing this dramatic decline. The bittern is a predator near the top of the food chain, which means a full ecosystem must be in place before the habitat is suitable. Langford Lowfields is, therefore, aiming to establish healthy populations of aquatic plants, invertebrates and, in turn, a strong population of fish to support these rare birds.