Re-wilding
Greenland Dock
In 2024 the SDMBHA were successful in a grant application to Southwark Councils Cleaner Greener Safer program to explore the rejuvenation of the wildlife habitat zone at the western end of Greenland Dock.
This followed re-greening projects undertaken in previous years in the old lock area at the opposite, Thames end of the dock.
These projects trialed a range of aquatic plants to research suitability in the tidal, brackish water and tested a variety of floating planter designs. They were incredibly successful and saw an astounding bounce back in marginal wetland habitat and a marked increase in both bird and fish populations alongside the flourishing flora.
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The western end of the dock proved a greater challenge as almost all remnants of the previous planters and nesting platforms had decayed and the site is inherently more exposed to strong winds with much deeper water. It had become impossible for any plants to survive there or any birds to nest.
Even the hardiest of successful nesting birds would produce chicks into a inhospitable deep-water environment without shelter where survival was unlikely.
A prototype triangular floating habitat that aimed to incorporate both floating aquatic plants and bird nesting platforms was designed and built by volunteer members of the SBMBHA and nursery partners AGA Group who have worked extensively with the local waterways and the rejuvenation of adjacent old industrial dock habitats.
It is hoped that this design will provide a robust, mutually supportive habitat and be the initial part of an archipelago of such structures to simulate the marginal wetland habitat now rare this close to central London.
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In the summer of 2024 SDMBHA members and volunteers built this new structure with the assistance of staff from the Surrey Quays Leisure Centre. It was moved and anchored in place a few weeks later with the help of South Dock Marina staff.
Representatives of the Surrey Docks Anglers, who oversee recreational fishing zones in the dock, and members of the Southwark Council Ecology Team were also consulted
The SDMBHA are extremely grateful for the assistance of all parties, volunteers and partners who helped to make this project such a successful reality.
We look forward to monitoring this early endeavor with an eye to further expansion of this small but unique biodiversity pocket in the local area and incorporating it into a chain of habitats and wildlife / pollinator corridors managed across the local area of the Rotherhithe peninsular.
The project was planned, organised and delivered by Benedict Ernst leading a group of volunteers, members of SDMBHA.
