Monday 12 October 2020

Dormice

Dormice numbers in the UK have declined by over 70% in two decades.

Dormice have been found at Straitgate, but Aggregate Industries wants to grub up their habitat – ancient hedgerow up to 4m wide. Little suitable replacement habitat is yet in place. Any that has been planted will take decades to yield anything worthwhile. The PTES "strongly objects":
An extensive amount of important hedgerow will be destroyed. This is completely irreversible. The hedgerows are present on maps dating from the turn of the 20th century and are likely to have existed for centuries before this. Compensation planting (for that is what replanting is – not mitigation as suggested) for losses of irreplaceable habitat should be at a ratio in the region of 30 – 1. Proposed replanting and that already done falls far short of this.
Plainly, Aggregate Industries couldn't care less. It's not bothered about this species. Its business model relies upon trashing nature: digging up the ground, removing everything in its path.

Close by, however, others are bothered, doing their bit to stop this much-loved species from extinction.