December 12, 2024

Pivotal Turf Translocation for Habitat Conservation

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We have recently had an increase in enquiries for turf translocation projects. Our most recent job was for Bloor Homes on a site in Basingstoke. Part of the ecological mitigation and management plan for the new development of houses on the old golf course specified turf translocation. The aim of translocation is to retain as close a flora, vegetation and soil community as possible to the donor site. The grasslands on the development site contained important species, so the aim was to protect this species in another local location. One of the proposed compensation strategies included:

Recover the soil, vegetation and flora of the important grassland areas and translocate those to prepared locations within the retained areas of the site
Habitat creation to support flora of chalk grassland within the Site (for example removing species-poor turf to expose bare chalk; creation of chalk banks and the sowing of chalk land flowers typical of the local landscape, with special attention being paid to species of conservation interest in the local area).

The timing of the translocation is important, as it must be done during the season when plants are dormant. Best practice is to do this just as they enter the winter period so that the translocated material has as long as possible to be in the receptor area before the beginning of growing season. Due to this, the works were scheduled for November. However, we have also had a very wet November with multiple storms, so this is impact on the ground conditions of the site. Landmarc’s machines have low impact track pads, so this ensured we could still work in the area and not create a mud bath. At the end of the project, 5000m2 of turf had been cut, transported and laid at the receptor site, ready to start growing again in the spring.