{"id":608201,"date":"2026-05-28T09:18:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T09:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/608201\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T09:18:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T09:18:24","slug":"air-quality-testing-to-protect-dorset-heathlands-from-pollution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/608201\/","title":{"rendered":"Air quality testing to protect Dorset heathlands from pollution"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c2dxerz7zplo\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dorset&#8217;s lowland heath <\/a>is one of the UK&#8217;s most threatened landscapes, home to a mix of rare plants, reptiles, insects, birds and mammals. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The fragile ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to air pollution, which can damage sensitive species and alter natural plant communities, says Dorset Council.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The findings revealed that heaths near the A338, A35 and Alderney\/Wallisdown roads experienced the highest levels of traffic pollution.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">All the data collected will also be used to risk assess the impact of traffic generated by new developments, informing the councils where schemes to minimise air pollution could be implemented.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Mitigation projects have already started, with Avon Heath, Upton Heath and Matchams View, the first to be delivered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Projects will be delivered annually, focussing on the high and medium priority heaths to start with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dorset&#8217;s lowland heath is one of the UK&#8217;s most threatened landscapes, home to a mix of rare plants,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-608201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}