The rise of rooftop wildlife – living slices of landscape carpeted with grasses, moss and wildflowers

Most traditional buildings dotted across the Lake District will be roofed with Westmoreland green slate. But the badger hide at RSPB Haweswater is a little different. It boasts a roof that is a living slice of the landscape, a carpet of soil filled with grasses, moss and wildflowers.  

Lee Schofield, site manager for the RSPB Haweswater reserve in the Lake District, build the living roof on the site’s badger hide three years ago using turf rescued from a hay meadow.  

“We decided when we were building it that we wanted it to be as sustainable and wildlife friendly as possible,” he tells i.  

The effort to save the meadow turf has paid off, with a carpet of wildflowers appearing on the hide roof each Spring and Summer, he says. Beech saplings are starting to sprout, having floated from a nearby ancient forest, while a soft layer of moss binds moisture during the winter months.  

The living roof has practical benefits too, he says. The layer of soil and plants helps to keep the hide warm and quiet for the long hours of badger watching. “It’s a very cosy hide,” he reports.  

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