Work has started to improve the site of a former colliery in Bo'ness, Falkirk.

The four-year programme has been organised by Falkirk Council and The Friends of Kinneil, and are being carried out as part of the Inner Forth Landscape Initiative.

The work will include pruning and thinning trees in the woodland at Kinneil Nature Reserve, as well as allowing large areas of grass that are currently cut short are to be allowed to develop into wildflower meadows.

Once the trees have been felled, woodland shrubs and wildflowers will be planted by volunteers which will provide food and nesting sites for birds and mammals.

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The wildflower meadows, located close to Snab Lane and Corbiehall – a short distance from the line of the Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway which runs through the site – will also be redeveloped to attract wildlife.

Welcoming the initiative, Councillor Adrian Mahoney, Falkirk Council's spokesman for Culture, Leisure and Tourism, said: "The woodland in the reserve was planted in the 1980's on spoil material from Kinneil Colliery. Since then the trees have grown well but now need to be thinned so those that remain have more space to grow. The site is also very exposed and some of the larger trees, particularly the pine, are beginning to blow over.

"Over the next four years trees in eight different areas are to be coppiced to encourage smaller, multi-stemmed trees to grow. These will be more resistant to being blown over. In the most exposed areas the pine trees will be felled and the timber left to decay. This will provide a home for fungi and insects that live in rotting wood."

The project is being funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Falkirk Environment Trust and Falkirk Council.

(JP/CD)