The recent findings on movement and migration of animals and plants is part of Lancashire Wildlife Trust’s new project with St Helens Borough Council.
Photo: Green Leaf-hopper (Cicadella viridis) photographed at Stanley Bank Meadow CREDIT: Dave Owen
Submitted by Ben Hargreaves, Edited by Emma Boff
A snapshot of Sankey Valley’s wildlife – the kind of plants and creatures that live there, used to live there and recent arrivals – is being gathered by inquiring naturalists.
Recent findings have discovered that while some species have suffered severe population declines, some southern species have moved North.
It’s all part of the work that Lancashire Wildlife Trust are doing in partnership with St Helens Borough Council on the ‘Sankey Valley Wildlife Corridor’ project throughout 2020-2021.
With financial support from Enovert Community Fund and the council, the project will establish data relating to a wide range of habitats and species – plants, birds, mammals and insects. This ecological information is vital for planned and future habitat works and will also – in future – help to assess the status of habitats and species.
Project leader Ben Hargreaves has been working closely with St Helens Borough Ranger Service to survey areas of the Sankey Valley, Warrington, Cheshire, from Stanley Bank Meadow Site of Special Scientific Interest to the Mucky Mountains in the south.
“These sites act as ecological “stepping stones” within the “wildlife corridor”. Habitat works will include cutting of meadows – and transfer of “green hay” from more flower-rich meadows to other, more species poor grasslands – woodland and wetland management.
We will also be conducting training and surveys that will – subject to restrictions – be open to the public, and at the end of the project an interpretation will be installed at selected points.
Interpretation will focus on the evolution of the modern-day habitats and associated species, with links to their industrial past.
Many habitats, animals and plants have undergone severe population declines and although many have become locally, regionally or nationally extinct change has not all been one way. Some – previously southern – species have expanded into northern areas of Britain into areas where they were previously unknown.
Other resident species have become more abundant locally. Insects have shown particular inclination to expand northwards and already – from field surveys – species not recorded for the region, Merseyside or St. Helens Borough have been found.
Sankey Valley, as with many continuous landscapes, is a vital corridor for the movement, migration and dispersal of animals and plants – the more we know about the associated wildlife the better equipped we will be to support the environment in future.”
