A Living Landscape

A Living Landscape is the Wildlife Trusts’ recovery plan for nature where high quality natural places will be connected to each other resulting in a diverse national landscape that will be full of trees and flowers, alive with birdsong and bursting with wildlife.

Our Living Landscape vision is to protect and enhance the value of areas which are already rich in wildlife, expand them and create connections between them so that the whole landscape, including countryside and urban areas, is more accessible to wildlife as it adapts to climate change.

To make the best connections possible the Wildlife Trusts have mapped out existing natural, outdoor, green spaces across the UK and identified clusters which can be easily connected to each other by planting trees, creating wetland and moorland, building green roofs, and making existing green spaces more wildlife friendly.

The Living Don is Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust’s contribution to the general shift towards creating and conserving large scale, networks of connected habitats through a ‘Living Landscape’ or ‘Ecosystem Approach’.

The move to this approach is partly driven in response to climate change, but also due to greater awareness of the importance of ‘ecosystem services’ – the public goods and services that natural areas provide – and the need for high quality green infrastructure.

Only by working with local communities, co-ordinating plans and policies, and encouraging people to understand and value the landscape can we rebuild the region’s biodiversity and restore the UK’s battered ecosystems.

Biodiversity

Biological diversity or ‘biodiversity’ refers to all the variety of life. It includes all species of animals and plants – everything that is alive on our planet.

Blackburn Valley

The Blackburn Valley Living Landscape is still under development but is located north of Meadowhall running parallel with the M1.

Rotherham Local Biodiversity Action Plans

Rotherham’s first LBAP was completed in 2004 by the Rotherham Biodiversity Forum

The River Rother at Catcliffe. Photo: Nabil Abbas

Rotherham Rivers 3 – River Restoration near Treeton

The works are being undertaken to enhance wetland habitats within the flood storage area, and to improve the geomorphological and habitat diversity

Sheffield / Peak District Moors

The Sheffield Moors collectively form the headwaters of the River Don.

Sheffield Local Biodiversity Action Plan

Sheffield’s Local Biodiversity Action Plan (LBAP) is one of the city’s mechanisms for protecting important wildlife species and habitats and contributing to national targets.

South Sheffield Greenway

The South Sheffield Greenway is a swathe of green space running from the moors in the west across the south of Sheffield and into Rotherham.

The River Don

The River Don itself forms the spine of the programme. The river flows from its headwaters in the Peak District, through South Yorkshire

Western Valleys

The Living Don – Western Valleys is a three-year partnership project with Sheffield City Council (SCC).

Wildlife in Sheffield and Rotherham

Fox Hagg

Badgers and bTB

Kingfisher Magazine