A busy year for the Limestone Pavement Partnership
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2025 was a busy year for me and the limestone pavement partnership, so I thought it would be nice to reflect on some of the highlights.
This year saw our first limestone pavement conference. In all honesty, I was really surprised at how popular it was with registrations filling within days. Despite the dodgy tea and coffee, the conference was really successful, giving people the chance to get together and talk about pavements, hear some fantastic talks and enjoy a visit to the beautiful Gait Barrows. Next year's conference will be based at Lancaster University so that we can host larger numbers and will take place on the 28th April – save the date!
Establishing an experiment at Horton in Ribblesdale quarry as part of the Heidelberg Materials Quarry Life Awards took up a lot of my time this year. The grazing experiment is really valuable research and will hopefully provide important data on the best approach to managing grazers in pavements. Winning the QuarryLife UK award and coming runner-up in the international awards was really exciting. With a new experiment funded by JNCC on the site and the grazing experiment continuing, I expect to be visiting the quarry regularly again this year.
The partnership currently has four postgraduate research students, with Sophie and Sian starting their MSc by Research projects last year. Less visible are the undergraduate students, several of whom have been working on pavement-based projects. Supervising research students has always been one of my favourite parts of my job, and it is fantastic to have students working on the pavements with me. This year will see our first graduate, so there is plenty to look forward to.
Last year, I was lucky enough to visit the Swedish Alvar on Öland, where the beautiful calcareous grasslands and pavements have been managed extensively. While the flora of the habitat differs somewhat from our pavements, there are lessons to be learnt about management. I was also lucky enough to visit the Shuttleworth Botanic Garden on the Isle of Man, where they are hoping to create a limestone pavement as part of ex-situ conservation efforts. Field work and field visits are always a highlight for me; I love the pavements and being out conducting vegetation surveys. I was fortunate enough to secure funding from the BES to work with photographer Oana Bakovic, who took some amazing photos during the time we spent in the field. The resulting small exhibition will be in Lancaster University library and Grange over Sands library this month. Hopefully, next year will bring me more opportunities to enjoy these beautiful habitats.
There is lots of other work ongoing and with visitors from overseas, another conference and a new staff appointment, it is set to be another exciting year for the partnership.
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