This website was set up by an environmental consultancy called
"Christopher Betts Environmental Biology". It's a bit of a mouthful so everyone calls it "CBEB" or "Betts Ecology"
What does an environmental consultancy like Betts Ecology do?
You might be surprised at how often we are asked this question!
Many people think that the places where wild animals and plants live (their "habitats") more-or-less look after themselves. But, in fact, many of them are fragile and can easily be damaged or completely destroyed by building works (houses, factories, roads, etc.), pollution, intensive farming, mining, quarrying and such operations, unless we take steps to protect them.
The United Kingdom has many laws to help to protect nature and wildlife but it is not always easy to know how best to keep to those laws.
Ecology, which is about the way nature works, is a very complicated science.
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For example...
if someone is building a new factory on open land with fields, hedges, ponds and ditches, how do you make sure that the least harm comes to the wild plants, insects, fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals that might be living there?
Well ...
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You carry out a survey or study of the land to see what is there; |
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| You make a list of everything you find; |
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| You ask local clubs and wildlife enthusiasts what records they have made of the site in previous years; |
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You check which of the habitats and species are specially important, perhaps because they are rare (like barn owls) and/or protected by the law (like bats and badgers); |
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| You work out how best to protect the important things you have found (for example by leaving parts of the land, such as the hedges, untouched by the building works, by moving the animals and plants carefully out of harm’s way or providing them with a new home and looking after them in the future); |
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You get everyone to agree on what is the best way to do what you have suggested (this is often the most difficult part of our work); |
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| You keep an eye on the site and make sure everything is going as planned while the building is being done and afterwards.
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Some other things we do are:
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Go to legal hearings to help people with planning applications;
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Manage ponds, woods and other pieces of land for wildlife;
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Put up bird and bat boxes;
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Protect old and valuable trees and ancient hedges;
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Publish specialist books on species and plant communities;
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Carry out research;
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Grow plants to replace ones lost on site or to add to decreasing populations;
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Use our library of wildlife reference books and specimens (insects, plants, fossils, etc.) to provide information to our customers;
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Train people about managing habitats and species and increasing "biodiversity" (the number and range of species);
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Help reduce pollution by cleaning up water by running it through artificial marshes and beds of reeds;
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Study the soils and rocks under the ground (geology);
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| Remove harmful and invasive plants such as Japanese knotweed;
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| Help people to manage their land "sustainably", that is by using ecologically friendly methods, materials and energy sources that do not harm the environment;
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| Support charities such as the Worcestershire Naturalists’ Club and make records available to Biological Records Centres.
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UNDER THE SEA
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JUNGLE LIFE