A very special suburban wildlife site

摘要

Barnsley in South Yorkshire is a town with a population of 91,297 at the 2011 census. The Metropolitan area encompasses many former mining villages and the whole of the borough has a population of almost a quarter of a million, with the wider county of South Yorkshire having an estimated population of approximately 1.4 million in 2017. It is not therefore a place that many would associate with sites rich in wildlife; however, the opposite is true asthe borough comprises a wide variety of habitats, and not least an important site close to the town centre. Whilst the nature conservation interest in upland areas of the Barnsley area in the Peak District National Park and the wetlands of the Lower Dearne Valley are realised, the Upper Dearne Valley is perhaps not fully appreciated. Indeed, it is a place where industrial heritage and wildlife coexist in an extensive area of grassland and wetland habitat bordered by suburbia.