Visiting a woodland recently I noticed the messiness of some piles of old tyres and how they didn't seem to fit in well with an ethos of conservation.  The manager explained that the tyres are used by small mammals such as mice and voles and they are full of interesting wildlife.  Challenged to find a lizard on a sunny day, I picked through the tyres and found several, one of which was obliging enough to be photographed.  Tyres represent a habitat for small mammals and reptiles that gives protection from the weather but also from predators.  Also water gathers in the bottom of some of them and the puddles are useful for these animals.

Tyres in woodland can be a great nuisance if large numbers have been dumped.  They are expensive to dispose of, costing as much as £2 each to have taken away and companies will only take them if you have got them to the roadside and have a reasonable quantity.   Most woodland owners will want to get them off-site and will have to pay to have them removed.  One reason it's expensive is because landfill sites don't like them - they fill a lot of volume and are therefore wasteful of landfill space.  Recycling can use them as part of an asphalt mix for roadbuilding.  Old tyres can even be burnt at high temperatures but they are still expensive for the landowner to get moved.

If you do decide to keep dumped tyres some of them can be used for marking edges to tracks or even for making swings and parts of assault courses.  Some people have filled them with earth and used them for walls in eco houses or shelters.

Apart from old tyres, another way to attract lizards and snakes is to put down some corrugated sheet of steel in your woodland.  In the sunshine these get remarkably warm and the metal sheets become a place that reptiles enjoy - both on top and underneath the corrugated.  Adders like to make their homes underneath corrugated steel sheets.