Project Description

Portland Living Landscape

This is a gallery of images from our work on the Portland Living Landscape project.   We joined the Dorset Wildlife Trust project in January 2013.  Our team were a constant presence around the former quarries until the project finished in January 2015.

The main objective of the work was to remove large areas of invasive Cotoneaster species.  This dominated large areas of the limestone grassland.  Cotoneaster reduced the area of available habitat for a wide range of important and rare plant, lichen and invertebrate species.  We treated the Cotoneaster with a systemic herbicide (Glyphosate), then grubbed-out and burned the dead plants.  In addition, we have undertaken large areas of scrub management.  Here, we removed a range of invasive plants to allow the native limestone grasses, herbs and wild flowers to re-establish.

We were incredibly proud to be commissioned for such an important conservation project.  Most of our team live, or have lived on the Isle of Portland, so it was great to be involved.  Personally, I felt like I was “giving something back” to the environment I grew up in.  My siblings and I used to play in the areas we were now working in, so I saw the impact first hand.