My regeneration
30 years ago, if Jeremy had fallen in the river then he’d have been more worried about being poisoned than drowned! A 1980s trawl survey found just one fish in the Billingham reach of the Tees,…
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Chwilio
Common fragrant-orchid
The Common fragrant-orchid lives up to its name: it produces a sweet, orangey smell that is very strong in the evening. Look for its densely packed, pink flower spikes on chalk grasslands in…
Calaminarian grassland
This is a strange, sparse habitat of grassland growing on old mining tracks and slag heaps, on river gravels and naturally exposed metal-rich soils in the mountains. Only the toughest metal-loving…
Moths near Lower Chapel
A morning identifying moths caught in light traps set the evening before at a private site near Lower Chapel
Machair
A rare habitat remarkable for its colourful diversity of wildflowers and abundant birdlife, machair grassland is a feast for the ears and eyes.
Harbour Porpoise
sometimes referred to as a “puffing pig” due to the noise they make when they breathe, porpoises differ from dolphins mainly by their shape and the smaller size of their body and dorsal fin.
How to attract moths and bats to your garden
Plant flowers that release their scent in the evening to attract moths and, ultimately, bats looking for an insect-meal into your garden.
Ystradfawr
This reserve, once the site of extensive coal mining, is a great example of how nature has reclaimed the landscape. It is a rich mix of wildlflower meadow, rhos pasture and young woodland. It is…
Types of development and planning applications
Planning permission is generally needed for any development. This means building, engineering, mining or other activity that makes changes to the use of land, or changes to existing buildings. There are exceptions that do not count as development, such as maintenance, changes to the interior of a building, agriculture, forestry and changes to gardens.