Chief Minister Fabian Picardo accompanied Environment Minister John Cortes on a visit to the Upper Rock last week to view works in process to improve the landscape.

The works are being carried out by Wildlife Gibraltar's Upper Rock Management Team, under contract to the Department of the Environment. The team is supervised by Reuben Senior and directed from the Botanic Gardens.

The initiative aims at opening up the dense scrub in a number of selected areas of the Upper Rock. One effect of this is the creation of picnic areas which will allow greater use of the Upper Rock as a recreational area for the community. This will also increase habitat available for Barbary Partridges which prefer open ground, and for the Barbary Macaques, which forage in open ground and avoid dense areas of vegetation.

The vegetation that is being cut is being passed through a shredder on site, with the resulting shredded material being spread on the ground as natural fertilizer. This avoids having to transport the material away and in effect recycles the organic matter.

Surplus material is being used as mulch and compost in the Botanic Gardens.