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.
Conservation charity celebrates first-ever litter of dormice born at wildlife sanctuary near Ottery St Mary https://t.co/RX9Wx9iLc2#Ottery #EastDevon
— East Devon News.co.uk (@EastDevonNews) October 2, 2020
