OHM Advisors’ Post

🌄 Restoring with Respect: The Rollover Approach at Longcliffe At Longcliffe, we're dedicated to more than just transforming landscapes. Our commitment to environmental stewardship is at the heart of our quarry restoration efforts. By adopting the 'Rollover' method, we’re proud to contribute to the evolving practices that blend ecological care with the natural beauty of the Derbyshire Dales' landscape. This innovative approach progressively restores quarry benches into gentle, rolling slopes that blend seamlessly into the surrounding landscape. But it's not just about looks. The rollover slopes make the areas more accessible for biodiversity to flourish. Since debuting this method with our Aldwark quarry restoration in 2020, the benefits have been clear. The softer, more natural contours not only improve the visual impact of former quarry sites but also create rich habitats for wildlife. Field grasses, wildflowers, bats, stoats, voles, and kestrels are just a few examples of the resurgence of life in these restored areas. Our commitment to this approach is ongoing. This is more than a restoration technique; it's a commitment to Longcliffe's dedication to environmental stewardship and community values. With each rollover slope, we're not just giving back to the land; we're ensuring it thrives for decades to come. #Longcliffe #InnovationInRestoration #RolloverSlopes #SustainableQuarrying #BiodiversityBoost

It's an early and cold start in the January sunshine for our Project Officers this week. Our latest restoration site for the season kickstarting as I type. This site has a lot going on: 💧It's a really key one for water. Our work will help raise and stabilize the water table in the peat, slowing the flow of water (and aiming to reduce carbon runoff) into a crucial water body. 🌄It's a large landholding, we're working on over 200hecatres. 🔍The peat of the site is severely damaged due to cumulative impacts of tin streaming, peat cutting, drainage and overgrazing. 🧭There are really interesting and important historic, even Bronze Age features in the area. We'll be excluding from our works and using buffer zones. 🐾A lot of potential for wildlife on this site as we intend to use willow bundles and catchment woodland creation to diversify habitat, as well as stabilize the edges of eroding peat. 🌳There's also a lot of great work taking place in the catchment by #SWLakes for water, wildlife and local people. Watch this space. Latest location for crucial peatland restoration works taking place on Dartmoor to come this week... Funded by Natural England South West Water #UpstreamThinking #DuchyOfCornwall Cornwall Council National Trust Dartmoor National Park Authority Historic England #SouthWestLakes Environment Agency #Peatlands #PeatlandRestoration #PeatBog #GenerationRestoration #ClimateChange #Cornwall #Devon #Somerset #Dartmoor #BodminMoor #Exmoor #WestPenwith

We talk a lot about the important role that prescribed fire has on our landscapes, but good fire is just one tool in our vegetation management strategy. We often prepare for fire by creating shaded fuel breaks – reducing surface and ladder fuels in strategic locations to slow fire spread and create buffer zones. This winter, we worked with the talented teams at Spye General Engineering and Hanford to implement the Rodger’s Ridge Shaded Fuel Break at our Live Oaks Ranch Preserve. The one-mile-long, 16-acre stretch is a prominent ridgeline between Knight’s Valley and Calistoga, and is critical to slowing the movement of wildfire into the nearby city. We will now be able use the shaded fuel break as an anchor for prescribed fire and forest health thinning on an adjacent 22-acre hillside, which will reinforce the ridgeline work. We secured funding from the Natural Resource Conservation Service and Sonoma County Ag Open Space District’s Vegetation Management Grant Program to implement this multi-benefit project, preparing it for prescribed burning in partnership with Northern Sonoma Fire District in fall 2024. Returning good fire to our landscapes is the most effective method to improve forest health and build resilience to future wildfires. Learn more about our Living with Fire program at https://ow.ly/hSVJ50RooyV #GoodFire #vegetationmanagement #PrescribedFire #SonomaLandTrust

🌲Offering a path forward through Wildlands protection.🌲 This time last year the study, Wildlands in New England: Past, Present, and Future, was released which filled a critical knowledge gap by providing an inventory of the location, characteristics, and protection status of all 1.3 million acres of Wildlands across the six New England states. Created by Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands & Communities in collaboration with NEWT, Harvard Forest, and the Highstead Foundation the impact of this report has been a call to action to include Wildlands protection as part of an integrated approach to conservation that also includes forests managed for wood products, natural spaces for recreation and renewal, and farmlands that produce local food — all existing among communities that rely on the health and beauty of the land that they call home. Once such example of integrated Wildlands is Muddy Pond Wilderness Preserve: "The distribution of many newer smaller Wildlands in suburbs and more densely populated areas, such as Muddy Pond Wilderness Preserve in exurban Kingston, Massachusetts, halfway between Boston and New Bedford, represents a growing emphasis on increasing accessibility for broader populations, and achieving Henry David Thoreau’s vision of a natural park in every town. (Wildlands in New England page 60)" 🔗 Check out the report here: https://lnkd.in/ecY2vn-y #landprotection #newengland #foreverwild #landtrust

Marjorie's property is a mix of wetlands and forests. When she put the property under easement, 80 percent of the wetlands were thriving, but about five years later they started drying up. The reintroduction of the beavers restored the wetlands. “Now, we have a healthy population of beavers. Half of the wetland is moist, the ponds are thriving. Because beavers build natural fire breaks and create patches of wetland that restore groundwater, they can make landscapes more resistant to fire and drought. In the early evenings or mornings, we can hear the beaver tail." #wetlands #peopleandnature #ecologicalrestoration #landtrusts #conservation #worldwetlandsday @eagle-valley-land-trust

Restoration efforts on the Riverby Ranch Mitigation Site in Fannin County, Texas have provided a safe haven for over 200 species of birds, including a variety of grassland species that are currently experiencing steep population declines such as Dickcissels, Bell’s Vireo, and Grasshopper Sparrows. One such species, the Northern Bobwhite, otherwise referred to as “quail” or “bobwhite”, occupies a particularly valuable ecological and economic niche in this region of Texas, acting as an umbrella species for grassland bird communities and as a popular game bird and important source of income for rural communities. In order to determine the efficacy of restoration efforts on the population of bobwhite quail on the ranch, annual spring call counts, as well as various other bird survey methods, have been implemented with this spring count call conducted in May of 2024. Read more about the report here:

Sag Moraine Partnership Alert: Prairie Tour and Restoration Effort at Shooting Star Prairie in Bridgeview The Village of Bridgeview Village of Bridgeview, Township of Lyons’ Clerk’s Office, Sag Moraine Native Plant Community, and Tallgrass Associates are embarking on an exciting project to restore a hidden gem that is often overlooked in Bridgeview! Bridgeview’s Shooting Star Prairie is located on Harlem Avenue and 76th Street and is 12 acres of remnant and restored prairie. There will be a tour of the Shooting Star Prairie on Friday, June 14th from 10am-11:30am with a meeting spot in the Shark’s parking lot, weather permitting. The Shooting Star Prairie is home to many rare species of native plants, moths, crayfish, and more. The Shooting Star Prairie is a historically significant location, and a hopeful example of how focused ecological management does work to improve species diversity even when surrounded by commercial land use! The Village of Bridgeview, Township of Lyons Clerk’s Office, Sag Moraine Native Plant Community, and the Tallgrass Associates have formed a coalition of interested individuals and organizations to assist in the restoration and development of this local historical treasure. Our five- year plan includes the removal of invasive species, building of decks and seating, creating walking paths, addition of more visitor parking, and construction of educational signage. The goal is to make Shooting Star Prairie an accessible nature preserve that hosts educational opportunities, scientific research, and a place where residents can submerse themselves in a beautiful piece of Illinois history. In addition to the tour on June 14th, there will be a Clean-Up-The-Prairie Day on Friday, June 21st from 10am-12pm, weather permitting, and an Invasive-Species-Removal Day on Friday, June 28th from 10am to 12pm, weather permitting. For more information, please email Lyons Township Clerk Elyse Hoffenberg at [email protected]. [Image description: Background is a photograph of a meadow with a variety of native plants in it, and monarch butterfly resting on a purple coneflower. In the top right corner is a text box that says, “New Partnership to Restore Shooting Star Prairie!” At the bottom of the image is the Sag Moraine Native Plant Community logo.] #NativePlants #Prairie #EnvironmentRestoration #Environment #Conservation #Ecosystem #Community

The article discusses the significance of the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) new "Public Lands Rule," which aims to modernize land management practices in Arizona. This rule marks a shift from prioritizing extractive industries to balancing conservation, cultural land protection, and access to nature. It addresses the challenges of drought, wildfires, and climate change by introducing tools for more sustainable management of public lands, which include 12 million acres in Arizona. This comprehensive approach has received strong support from the community, lawmakers, and conservation groups, reflecting a broader preference among Arizonans for preserving their natural landscapes and heritage. The rule also emphasizes co-management with Tribal nations and seeks to improve public lands that are crucial for the state's $21 billion outdoor recreation economy. #commercialrealestate #crenews #cre #arizonanews #PublicLandRule #economy #AZeconomy

Word keeps spreading about the new state park at River Partners’ former Dos Rios Ranch Preserve near Modesto. On NPR's “All Things Considered” show, host Ailsa Chang shared that, “…stepping into this park is like stepping into a time machine, where the land has been restored to a semblance of what it used to look like centuries ago…” The 1,600-acre Dos Rios is the largest public-private floodplain restoration project in California history, has been dubbed a "park of the future," and delivers critical wins for the state's environment and communities. Those benefits include improved flood safety for vulnerable communities, increased water supply for farms and households, more habitat for struggling wildlife, natural carbon capture, and increased public health through new outdoor-recreation opportunities. "We need thousands more acres just like this. Not just not for just water, not for habitat, but for the people of the land, for the people that were here long before anybody else." - Austin Stevenot, Northern Sierra Mewuk, River Partners San Joaquin Valley Field Manager https://lnkd.in/gUu6U272

📰 Treat yourself to this beautiful new profile of Northeast Wilderness Trust by Susan Shea in Northern Woodlands, which captures the promise of our work and what makes rewilding so essential right now. Join Susan and our staff as they explore Woodbury Mountain Wilderness Preserve in Vermont and experience the unique joys of wilderness and how it fits into the intricate "quilt of land uses for the Northeast." "The benefits of forever-wild conservation include the potential over time for a greater proportion of old, undisturbed forest across the Northeast. Old forests offer tremendous carbon storage, clean water, and habitat for bird species and other wildlife that need late succession habitat. They also provide research sites for scientists studying ecological processes, and serve as examples for foresters trying to mimic their beneficial characteristics in younger, actively managed forests. Protected wildlands offer places for people to connect with nature free of the sound of motors." Reach the full article here: https://lnkd.in/ejyVDMPc #rewilding #landtrust #landconservation #northeast #oldgrowth