Baker Consultants

Road Verge biodiversity project – Barnsley – Doncaster – Rotherham

Welcome to the first volunteer bulletin! Firstly, thank you for volunteering with the On The Verge project to conserve, monitor and improve the biodiversity in road verges across the Dearne Valley.

The Road Verge Biodiversity Project aims to enhance biodiversity across the area by increasing local understanding of the value of verges for biodiversity through practical conservation work and monitoring surveys of key indicator species.

So far a condition assessment of 17km of road verges has been completed to initially identify the quality of these verges to identify where the project can make the biggest biodiversity gains. The condition assessments also looked at the safety of the road verges for volunteers to work on, as well as soil quality, plant species present and potential management activities. Bird and butterfly surveys have now been completed too, with birds including yellowhammer, garden warbler, and 40 other species being recorded. Six species of butterfly were also recorded across the three boroughs during the surveys, with other invertebrates such as the cinnabar moth and white-tailed bumblebee also present.

Three species of orchids found on Manvers Way, including Bee Orchid, Southern Marsh Orchid and Common Spotted Orchid | Baker Consultants

Three species of orchids found on Manvers Way, including Bee Orchid, Southern Marsh Orchid and Common Spotted Orchid

The Highways Agency are also becoming increasingly involved in the On The Verge project. We have met with Rotherham who are very keen to be involved in this project. Doncaster and Barnsley meetings are planned for the future. Other private stakeholders are also looking to become involved in the project, so watch this space!

We have also started to develop the On The Verge 5-year Management Plan that will leave a lasting legacy and guide the management of the selected verges. The plan will outline the verges selected for volunteers to manage, containing detailed maps of the roads and where management work shall take place, as well as management activity timescales. The practical conservation work outlined in the plan will focus on bulb planting, wildflower sowing, living bird tables and scrub clearing.

This is where you come in, we’re keen for local communities to engage and drive the management plans, so we would like to hear management ideas from the volunteers. We will be running three Community Meetings to discuss management options, as well as to gain an idea of particular areas of interest.

The meetings will be held on the following dates:

  • 7th August – Elsecar Heritage Centre, Elsecar @ 6pm
  • 8th August – Wentworth Village Hall, Wentworth @ 6pm
  • 14th August – St. Peter’s Church Hall, Barnburgh @ 6pm

Alongside the practical conservation work will also be a monitoring programme. The monitoring surveys aim to increase biological records of road verges as they are severely under recorded. The surveys will target key indicator species including plants, birds and butterflies. The training workshops for plant, bird and butterfly recording are to be planned soon, so keep a look out!

If you have any questions about the On The Verge project that you would like to discuss, please contact us.