A FORMER gravel pit has been given a new lease of life as a wildlife reserve.
The Cassington Pit site was being covered in meadow hay yesterday to distribute wildflower seeds which will hopefully colonise the new habitat next year.
The 25 hectare former gravel pit just north of Oxford has been restored to a complex of reedbeds, ponds and meadows by owners Hanson, working in partnership with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Nature After Minerals and Pond Conservation.
Liz Harris, restoration adviser for Nature After Minerals, pictured left with colleague Caz Jewell and Andy Duncan of Hanson, said: “We are looking forward to seeing what comes up next year.
“Floodplain meadows are an internationally rare habitat, and we have lost a lot in the last 100 years.”
She said plans included creating habitats for birds including bitterns and reed warblers, and invertebrates such as bees and butterflies.
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