Caring for wastewater and wildlife at the same time

Jon
Caring for wastewater and wildlife at the same time.

Jon keeps an eye on everything at our Vines Cross site, making sure the environment and wildlife are all cared for, alongside the important work of wastewater treatment.

I’m a Process Operator looking after this site. At Vines Cross we treat 104 litres per second of wastewater for around 17-18,000 people. I love the countryside, so I try to go the extra mile every day to make the whole site as green possible.

I’ve had the site for about 27 years, and it was in a bad state when I took it on. It’s great to see how we’ve transformed it by careful management and observing the flora and fauna. All the things we’ve done to protect the environment have encouraged biodiversity in this area - it’s about doing the right thing to help nature thrive. The biggest challenge is keeping all the creatures happy, so they keep coming here.

Protecting the wildlife can be as simple as putting up bird boxes or leaving any logs to form a cosy place for bark beatles and woodlice to live. We’ve also placed bee hotels on trees to encourage wild bees. As for birds, I hear lots of red and green woodpeckers and see tree creepers. We encourage larger birds of prey too, giving them somewhere to land after riding the thermals in the sky. And I often see larger animals too, including wild deer.

I’m always looking around the site to see if we have any new wildlife visitors. Ten years ago, we had a pheasant, and this particular one became very friendly. Every morning when I arrived on site, it would have a ride on my car when I came in the gate, then it would follow me out when I went home in the evening.

There are so many things we can do to help protect the environment and the amazing wildlife we have on our site. And we know that if the environment benefits, the community does too.