Services
The Natural Greenspace Company offers a wide range of services related to all aspects of land management for nature conservation and associated recreation, to ensure our clients receive a comprehensive service.
Management Planning
The expert ecologists at the Natural Greenspace Company can produce a fully costed management plan for your site, tailored to enhance the biodiversity value whilst ensuring other demands such as public access are also accommodated. We are able to complement the extensive experience that EPR has in this area, particularly that related to providing practical management planning and implementation of SANGs management with respect to the Thames Basin Heath SPA.
Habitat Creation
We have the expertise to design and build habitats on your site, for instance; ponds for great crested newt mitigation, stream, river and lake management, reedbed and other planting, hedgerow and woodland management and the seeding and subsequent grazing or mowing of wildflower meadows. We can tackle effectively all terrestrial and aquatic habitat challenges.
Site Infrastructure
If your site needs infrastructure such as fences to contain livestock or restrict access, footpaths, boardwalks, bridges, gates, stiles, signposts, trail-markers or benches, Natural Greenspace Company can provide and install them.
We have in-house artistic expertise to combine science and design into attractive information boards.
Contractor Supervision
We have wide experience in supervising contractors on ecological schemes, from ground workers to landscape contractors and tree surgeons. Expert ecological supervision will ensure top results first time. This service includes the role of Ecological Clerk of Works on construction sites.
Habitat Management Implementation
The Natural Greenspace Company can implement specialist ecological management on your site using appropriate methods to provide the maximum biodiversity gain. This could use traditional methods such as conservation grazing, or more modern techniques such as forage harvesting. All work is fully risk-assessed and insured, all staff are fully trained and qualified for the tasks in hand.
Monitoring
In order to be successful, conservation management requires monitoring, the results of which are fed-back into the management plan. Our ecologists are highly experienced in ecological survey and can carry out monitoring for plants, habitats and a wide range of animal species.
Public Access and Site Management
Most natural areas are open to the public. As well as providing the initial infrastructure to allow safe public access to your site, the Natural Greenspace Company can provide ongoing management of your site to permit public access without it compromising its biodiversity value. This can include day-to-day management such as litter-picking or longer term monitoring of public use and addressing any issues.
Education and Community Involvement
We recognise that publicly accessible sites are valuable assets for local communities and community involvement can provide positive benefits on top of those for biodiversity. We are able to manage this involvement through, for example, a schools education programme, wildlife themed public events, volunteer working parties and community education.
Soil Survey and Soil Handling
Soil surveys are carried out to identify the natural soils, areas of disturbance
and presence of useful soil forming materials within a site. The results
are used to draw up method statements for soil handling (stripping, storage
and reinstatement) prior to the construction phase of a development, or
extraction phase for mineral sites.
The identification of different soil types and volumes, and their separate conservation forms an effective basis to the design and layout of proposed developments. This can include the restructuring of land uses in association with development and the successful establishment of woodland, landscape and amenity planting, and new or translocated wildlife habitats.
Soils form the edaphic part of the ecosystem, and soil surveys and analysis of nutrient levels can ensure that the appropriate substrate is in place when creating new or translocated wildlife habitats.
Expert on-site supervision can also be provided during the soil handling