Example projects

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Wolf Minerals

In September 2015 extraction commenced at the Drakelands tungsten operation, a large open cast mining facility developed to mine extensive reserves of tungsten ore close to the village of Hemerdon, near Plymouth, Devon.

Cornwall Wildlife Trust and South West Water

Farm visits were carried out by Cornwall Wildlife Trust staff to farm within the three catchments above in order to consult and advise on habitat, water and spoil management, in particular the management of waste water.

Ecological Planning and Research

A large housing development was planned on land between the villages of Shinfield and Spencers Wood, to the south of the M4 and Reading.  

Natural England 

Working closely with Keith Alexander (terrestrial invertebrate ecologist) a series of surveys were undertaken to assess the invertebrate assemblages and designated interests at several SSSIs across England.

CORMAC

Major improvements on the A30, the main arterial road link into Cornwall were to be undertaken at Temple, on the edge of Bodmin Moor, including the dualling of an existing stretch of single carriage road.

Morgan Sindall and Dwr Cyrmu (Welsh Water)

This was a large project, leading a team of surveyors from Morgan Sindall, to assess the impacts of Combined Storm Overflow (CSO) outfalls and storm overflow outfalls at Waste Water Treatment Works (WWTW) across Welsh Water's extensive holdings as part of the client's AMP 6 planning and responsibilities.

Wessex Water

Wimbleball Lake on the edge of Exmoor is managed for both recreational purposes and as a reservoir by Wessex Water, and along with Clatworthy Reservoir supplies much of the Taunton Deane area.

Cresswell Associates/Hyder Consulting/Arcadis

Over several years aquatic invertebrate surveys have been conducted to carry out the long-term monitoring of the outfalls from three paper mills, initially on behalf of Cresswell Associates, and later for Hyder and then Arcadis, which successively purchased the consultancy during the course of the project.

Hyder Consulting

Rock Dryers is an Imerys kaolin (china clay) dewatering and pressing plant east of the village of Bugle in Cornwall.

Environment Agency, Southern Region

Extensive surveys of the aquatic and marginal floral communities in ditches of high ecological value at several grazing marsh sites across Sussex in order to assess their conservation value and monitor any potential impacts on the ditch networks from eutrophication.

Parsons Brinckerhoff

An area of land approximately 2km north of the centre of Avonmouth, known locally as Merebank was to be the site of a new material recovery facility and batch oxidation system gasification plant, to be built and operated by SITA UK.

Titan Environmental Surveys and Yorkshire Water

This was an extensive project, conducted as part of a team headed by Titan Environmental Surveys over three years, to assess the impacts of Combined Storm Overflow (CSO) outfalls and storm overflow outfalls at Waste Water Treatment Works (WWTW) across Yorkshire Water’s extensive holdings as part of the client’s AMP 3 and AMP 4 planning and responsibilities.

The Landmark Practice

Prior to the construction of a solar array on land at Aller Court, near Langport on the Somerset Levels, concern was expressed that the solar panels could disrupt the movements of winged insects, notably the diverse and important water beetle and bug fauna in the surrounding rhynes, which are of high conservation value.

Natural England

Riverine SSSIs in England are assessed under Common Standards Monitoring by a combination of macrophyte (aquatic and marginal flora) transects, which classify river reaches according to their vegetation communities, and River Habitat Surveys (RHS). Over the course of several years SSSIs were assessed along with Panscape Environmental Consultancy, who carried out the RHS surveys.

National Trust

Surveys of the aquatic invertebrate communities in freshwater habitats across a wide variety of National Trust properties were undertaken over several years, ranging from large lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, springs and small pools in valley mires and marshes. The surveys identified particular species and communities of conservation interest and helped to inform the future management of the various properties.

Scottish Natural Heritage

A series of surveys were undertaken to assess the invertebrate assemblages and designated invertebrate interests at several SSSIs across Scotland to assess if they were in favourable condition.

The Ecology Consultancy

The Heathrow Airtrack project provided a link between the new Heathrow Terminal 5 and the existing rail network at Staines.

Natural England

Pen Park Hole is an interesting cave in a small outlying outcrop of Clifton Down Limestone on the outskirts of Bristol, one of the few extant examples in Britain of a cave formed by rising thermal groundwaters.

Cresswell Associates

As part of a project run by the Environment Agency, three farms were selected for a pilot study to monitor changes introduced within their management schemes as part of the Voluntary Initiative, in which pesticide usage at the farms would be considerably reduced and better managed.

Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) South West

Manor Farm at Merriot, near Langport on the Somerset Levels, includes within its holdings a low-lying section of pasture adjacent to the Merriot Stream. This low plateau frequently became flooded during winter, leading to the development of extensive rush pasture of little value for grazing. The farm owner approached FWAG with a proposal to develop this land into a wetland with concomitant benefits for the local wildlife.

Panscape Environmental Consultancy and Environment Agency, Thames Region

Extensive mapping of floral communities and habitats within the catchments of the upper Thames, Addlestone Bourne and Chertsey Bourne to provide data for the Environment Agency’s catchment appraisals and to inform future management decisions.

Ecological Planning and Research

Torr Quarry lies in the eastern Mendip Hills of Somerset and is an active limestone quarry with outfalls that discharge drainage water from the base of the workings into three separate watercourses: Whatley Brook, Nunney Brook and the upper reaches of the River Alham.

Pico Energy

Lee Abbey lies within the beautiful valley of the River Lee on the coast of Exmoor in North Devon. The Abbey is run as a Christian holiday and conference centre and up to the 1950s used to have a micro-hydrolectric scheme in place to supply power; although over time due to the projected costs of the much needed repairs this fell into disrepair and was abandoned.  During 2007 the abbey examined the feasibility of renovating the scheme and carried out initial appraisals, with plans to increase the abstraction.

Hyder Consulting

The Ynys Mead Reen is one of the main drainage channels on the Caldicott Levels, part of the Gwent Levels in South Wales. The reen is crossed by an old drove track, known as Longlands Lane, which was to be improved to allow the access of construction traffic to a site where the construction of a large wind turbine and ancillary structures was to be undertaken.

AMEC/Morgan Est

The First Time Sewerage Scheme was a project carried out by Welsh Water to connect properties in the small village of Peterstone Wentlooge to the main sewerage line, the Cardiff scheme Interceptor Sewer.

Durham Consultants

Prior to the construction of the major housing development of Sherford, on the outskirts of Plymouth, Durham Consultants undertook an extensive EcIA of the surrounding landscape, most of which consisted of agricultural pasture of low ecological value.

The Wandle Trust

The River Wandle is a degraded chalk river now within a predominately urban catchment in south-west London. The Wandle Trust, a charitable trust dedicated to the improvement of the river, planned to carry out extensive restoration works along the length of the Carshalton branch of the river, which has a legacy of water-powered riverside mills.

Ecological Planning and Research

Prior to expansion of Broadmoor Hospital and construction of a new wing, an extensive EcIA of the surrounding estate was undertaken by EPR. As part of this undertaking surveys of the aquatic flora and invertebrate communities were required for various aquatic habitats on the estate.

RPS Group

The Atlantic Array was a proposed offshore wind farm in the Bristol Channel, off the coast of North Devon. Part of the scheme’s proposal was to lay a cable on-shore that would link the array to a sub-station west of the village of Alverdiscott, thereby providing input to the national grid.

Devon Wildlife Trust

The Higher Kiln Quarry at Buckfastleigh, Devon contains several caves important as roosting sites for greater and lesser horseshoe bats, as well as harbouring populations of the endemic stygobitic shrimp Niphargus glenniei, which worldwide is only known from groundwater habitats (including caves and mines) across Devon and Cornwall.

Aluco Ecology

The Portfield site on the edge of Chichester was a large area of former gravel workings, containing several settlement lagoons and pits that had subsequently been allowed to flood and form several significant, deep lakes.

Tamar Ecology

Trewithen Dairy near Lostwithiel in Cornwall, abstracts water from a series of licensed boreholes. Under the terms of the abstraction licence the dairy is required to monitor the impacts from the abstractions on the surrounding stream catchments to ensure that water levels in the streams do not drop to levels that would be detrimental to their invertebrate fauna.

Cormac

To relieve road traffic congestion in Camelford, CORMAC plan to construct a major bypass route for the A39. Part of this project involves the construction of a major new crossing over the upper valley of the River Camel, requiring an assessment of the aquatic invertebrate communities present within the impacted reach of the river.

EcoLogic

The White Cross Windfarm is a floating off-shore array planned for the Bristol Channel. As part of a larger ecological appraisal, being undertaken by EcoLogic, surveys were required of the aquatic invertebrate communities within the various freshwater habitats, as well as the aquatic and bankside flora of the grazing marsh ditches. 

Westcountry Rivers Trust

Due to increasing traffic congestion in Newton Abbot and surrounding villages in Devon, a new bypass route was proposed for the existing A382.  Surveys of the aquatic invertebrate and floral communities were undertaken to inform the ecological appraisal of the marsh habitats prior to works commencing. 

E. & J.W. Glendinning Ltd.

Linhay Quarry is a large limestone quarry and important local resource on the outskirts of Ashburton, Devon. To extend its operational life, the quarry needed to expand eastwards to exploit the considerable depth of Devonian limestone underlying the adjacent fields. This is the first study of its kind in the UK to use the ecological monitoring of groundwater communities to assess the impact of quarrying on the habitat.

EcoLogic

EcoLogic Consultant Ecologists were commissioned by the Upper Axe Landscape Recovery Project to evaluate the current ecological value of the landscape and habitats within the Upper Axe Catchment in East Devon, including the main River Axe between Chard Junction and the Temple Brook confluence, downstream of Clapton Bridge, as well as the main tributaries along this reach, the Hewood Streams, Cricket St. Thomas Stream and the River Synderford.

Natural Resources Wales 

Across Britain there are a number of cave systems that are either designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) in their own right or lay beneath designated areas. However almost all of these designations are based on geological features, including cave sediments, mineral deposits and passage morphology; their rich palaeontological deposits; or a combination of the two. Although many of Britain’s caves provide valuable habitats for a range of subterranean fauna, their ecology has commonly been overlooked, or has played only a minor role, in their designation as SSSIs, mostly being limited to their importance as roost sites for rare bat species.