Caldervale, Life at the Margin

The ABLE Project, Caldervale 756094.117 (Category D) is a multi award-winning sustainable development project, which won a national ‘ Natural Environment’ award in 2008 (judged by RSPB) and features as one of the first fifteen Project Case Studies on ENTRUST’s website. Historically a gravel working and former landfill alongside the River Calder, its 34 acre grassland provides a crucial link in a chain of ecological sites along the Calder Valley through Wakefield. Areas of the site are being farmed (on a nutrient-rich basis) for community woodland, coppice and local food etc. The aim of this discrete DA project is to preserve the wild species and habitats which co-exist at the margins i.e. the natural ‘nutrient poor’ areas fo the site.