Natural degradation
Natural degradation is a serious problem on many geological sites. Uncontrolled vegetation encroachment and slumping of faces are the commonest problems, resulting in geological features becoming obscured.
This is particularly so on man-made inland sites such as disused quarries and cuttings, where erosion rates are too low to maintain clear exposures.
Positive management is required for effective conservation of these sites. The Face Lift programme has been designed to tackle these problems and provides support to landowners for face clearance works to help manage sites for their geological interests.
Examples of sites where vegetation management programmes have been undertaken include:
- Kilmersdon Road Quarry SSSI, Somerset
- Old Town Railway Cutting SSSI, Swindon, Wiltshire
- Tideswell Dale, The Wye Valley SSSI, Derbyshire
- Tilton Cutting, Leicestershire
- Rusthall Common, Kent.
Flooding, disused mines and quarries
Other problems arising from natural degradation include flooding and/or collapse of disused mines and quarries. Flooding of disused quarries and mines can be an inevitable consequence of operations ceasing, and there is generally no requirement on the operator to continue pumping out water.
Similarly, collapse of disused mines is often inevitable. Because of the enormous costs involved in permanently pumping quarries or mines or maintaining old mine tunnels, loss of access to geological features on such sites is usually practically irreversible.
