Shrubs and trees play an important role in urban landscapes – benefitting wildlife and humans, providing habitat and a food source for some fauna, and connectivity for small mammals, as well as enhancing the local environment for people.
We have recently helped our client, principal contractor and British engineering firm, Spencer Group, by landscaping areas at several railway stations throughout Surrey.
The station platforms had recently been extended, so we landscaped the areas around to enhance them for both wildlife and amenity purposes.
We removed less ecologically diverse plant species and replanted the areas with a variety of trees and shrubs as well as sowing some areas of wildflowers. Many of the species chosen are beneficial for wildlife, such as honeysuckle which is very attractive to bees, butterflies and insects. The plants will eventually grow up and screen the station from nearby buildings to improve the appearance of the areas.
We also plugged a hedgerow gap with hawthorn and blackthorn, which will improve connectivity for wildlife, making an “ecology corridor”, enabling small mammals, such as dormice, to travel safely along their areas of habitat.
