Durham Tees Valley Airport grassland to go wild
18.01.08
New wildflower meadows are bringing a bit of the 1940s to Darlington, thanks to an link-up between council and Durham Tees Valley Airport.
The grasslands surrounding the airport at Middleton St George are packed with wildflowers that attract hundreds of butterflies to the rare habitat. The meadows have been untouched by damaging fertilisers and continue to reflect how the local countryside would have looked nearly 70 years ago - when the airport site was a wartime RAF base.
Now, Darlington Council is to make good use of the site as a result of its partnership with the airport. Seeds gathered from the site have been used on a newly-created area of land as part of the Source of the Denes project at Cocker Beck, in Darlington.
The airport allowed specially adapted machinery to collect wildflower and grass seed from each side of the runway. It is hoped the area will become a flower-rich meadow next spring and the partnership could expand further this year by taking greater amounts of wildflower seed and using it in new parts of the town, such as the Red Hall Nature Reserve.
Durham Tees Valley Airport's operations director, Kerry Quinn, said the fact that large areas of the site have remained trapped in time since it opened as an airbase makes the project unusual. They are delighted to work with the council making use of our heritage.
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