You may have read in our previous post that the new ‘Water Vole Mitigation Handbook’ has now been released by the Mammal Society. Water voles Arvicola amphibius are often quoted as the UK’s fastest declining mammal and they are protected by law under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981). These new guidelines may have a knock-on effect on project costs.
The Nationally significant development and possibly largest known water vole mitigation project to be carried out in the region, DP World, London Gateway in Essex required removal of water vole. A displacement programme was undertaken to encourage water vole away from the construction zone. This involves making areas currently occupied by water vole unsuitable by removal of habitat in the hope that they will be displaced to alternative areas. Due to the size of the site and water vole population this resulted in the recolonising of less suitable habitat within the development area, requiring a trapping and relocation exercise at increased cost to the developer. Lessons learned from projects of this scale have informed the latest guidelines where the requirement for displacement is now a licensed activity limited to habitat losses of up to 50m in length. Whilst sufficient surveys to inform a development of this scale can front load ecology project costs, having a clear achievable ecology strategy can save costs and significantly shorten the project delivery time. This is where involving a strategic ecological consultancy in a project team really pays off as a good consultant will know where it is justifiable to deviate from guidelines. The project at DP World is one of several large scale development projects that has contributed hugely to our understanding of water vole mitigation. Sharing data to aid research is a great way of maintaining good links with communities and increasing the publicity value of a project with no extra cost to the developer.
0 Comments
|
Archives
July 2022
Categories
All
|