The Results
View Discovered Verges in a larger map
Explore this map to see where the high-scoring verges were found last year and whether your verges appear among them! These road sections will be short-listed for designation as Local Wildlife Sites (LWSs) which will be instrumental in securing management more sympathetic to wildlife.
Verges have been colour coded to reflect their conservation value and combined with a map of Roadside Nature Reserves to show how they link between known areas of high diversity.
Ideal corridors run from north to south and link existing reserves or verges now known to be in good condition. You might like to use this map to help you target likely hotspots and connecting areas this year.
The most exciting aspect of the survey data so far, has been the discovery of two very promising north-south climate corridors. These are contiguous stretches of road with a consistently high number of wild flower species characteristic of limestone grassland growing along them. 10.5km (6.5 miles) of good quality verges run from Bracebridge Heath to Metheringham and a further 12.5 km (7.8 miles) of even higher conservation value link Ancaster with Sapperton. The second of these two corridors has become known as 'The Wild Flower Way' and connects 3 SSSIs with 5 existing RNRs. Such avenues of opportunity are now lighting up our local landscape and are beginning to give us the information we need if we are going to succeed in the vital work of linking up the fragments of highly diverse grassland that remain.
We have already been able to act on this information and have targeted the High Dike between Ancaster and Cranwell for scrub clearance this winter (2009-10). We are also now in a position where we can begin to prioritise and target survey work next season.
