Showing posts with label dormice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dormice. Show all posts

Monday, 13 February 2023

Hazel dormice should be classified as endangered, new research suggests

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Sunday, 21 February 2021

Hedgerows: ‘Reservoirs of life’ that can help the UK reach net zero

One New Year’s Day, ecologist Rob Wolton came up with an unusual resolution – to spend the next 12 months studying a hedge 40 metres from his house in the middle of Devon.
He wanted to make a list of every plant, animal and fungus that used it. 
“I thought it would take a year, but at the end of the first one I was still finding masses of new species so decided to carry on for another,” he says. 
That was 10 years ago. After two years of observations he had found 2,000 species – far more than he imagined. The hedge is 20 metres from a pond, 130 metres from a native broadleaf wood, and surrounded by nature-friendly farmland, which means it is probably particularly good for wildlife – Wolton estimates that the hedge supports nearer 3,000 species in total. 
“There is increasing recognition that within intensively farmed landscapes, much of the wildlife finds refuge in the hedges. But they’re much more than just wildlife corridors – they are really important as habitats in their own right,” he says.

But hedgerows are important for other reasons too. Not only do they sequester carbon, retain soil, alleviate flooding, improve air and water quality, they are also part of our cultural landscape, part of our history and national identity. 

Aggregate Industries couldn't care. The company wants to grub up some 1500m of ancient hedgerow at Straitgate Farm – hedgerows dating back hundreds of years, hedgerows up to 4 metres wide, hedgerows that are habitat for protected bats and dormice. 

What would Aggregate Industries replace them with? Here's an example of the company's recent work, courtesy of Devon County Council's recent Hillhead monitoring report. 

Is it any wonder we're in such serious trouble?
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Monday, 14 December 2020

Housebuilder fined £600k for destroying bat roost

A court has handed out the largest ever fine for wildlife crime to Bellway Homes after it admitted "carrying out work at a site where bats were known to inhabit". All species of bats in the UK are protected.
The company had been notified in planning documents that it would first need to obtain the appropriate mitigation and a Natural England European protected species licence.

Consultants found "at least eleven bat species" when they surveyed Straitgate Farm in 2013, including one of the rarest bats in western Europe. 

Little compensation planting has yet been established at Straitgate for protected bats and dormice. Much of the tree planting that took place in 2014 – in an effort to compensate for the ancient hedgerows and veteran trees that would be lost from quarrying – was in the wrong place and had to be cut down. 

The People’s Trust for Endangered Species has strongly objected to Aggregate Industries' application to quarry Straitgate Farm, saying: 
An extensive amount of important hedgerow will be destroyed. This is completely irreversible. The hedgerows are… likely to have existed for centuries… Compensation planting… 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.
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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.
 
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Wednesday, 15 April 2020

Hedgerows: ‘it's vital we take care of what we have left’


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Wednesday, 4 September 2019

The Great British Hedgerow Survey

Aggregate Industries' plans to quarry Straitgate Farm would see extensive distances of ancient hedgerows up to 4m wide grubbed up. Little compensation has been put in place to offer alternative habitat for bats and dormice.

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 (Appendix 1) 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.
The PTES has recently been tweeting on the importance of hedgerows, and has started the Great British Hedgerow Survey:










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Tuesday, 18 September 2018

Everybody loves dormice


Cute, sleepy, nocturnal, largely arboreal, and a protected species, dormice numbers have declined by over 70% in two decades – in large part due to habitat fragmentation:
These tiny rodents spend most of their life among trees and can only travel small distances across open ground. As a result, the continued loss and damage of our native woodland and the hedgerows that once connected it has been disastrous.


There are dormice at Straitgate Farm. Aggregate Industries plans to grub up their habitat – some 1500m of ancient hedgerow up to 4m wide. Little suitable replacement habitat is yet in place.

But apparently even the aggregate companies – purveyors of habitat fragmentation – love dormice. No, really. Forget about pesky ecological surveys, development delays, mitigation and compensation – look at this from CEMEX. What better way to greenwash a twitter feed?

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Monday, 2 April 2018

AI cuts down ‘compensation’ planting; so where does that leave protected species?

Four years ago, Aggregate Industries planted some trees around Straitgate Farm in an effort to compensate for the ancient hedgerows and veteran trees that would be lost if quarrying took place. The trees were meant to provide replacement habitat for protected dormice. This is what they look like now:


They had previously looked like this:


We said at the time that the planting was presumptuous and 20 years too late. The area set aside for planting was also woefully inadequate.

As it turned out, AI failed to consult Exeter Airport on the issue, and planted the majority of these trees in the wrong place. In 2015, Exeter Airport advised:
Any tree and hedge planting should be restricted to the far eastern side of the site and below the 135mAOD contour ensuring trees are not allowed to grow to a height that will cause OLS penetration issues in future years.
Tree management and planting should be carried out following the guidance in the attached EDAL tree planting plan to ensure no further penetrations of the Obstacle limitation surfaces.


As a result, AI’s Reg22 Ecology Response admitted:
6,000 m2 (0.6 ha) of advance woodland planting within the application boundary will be removed due to issues relating to Exeter Airport. 2.1.5
However, if you look at the above plan you will see that Exeter Airport advised AI to remove only the trees in the red circle, and control the height of the remainder. Perversely, AI has chopped down ALL the trees and shrubs in both the red AND the orange areas.

It’s a shambles. If we can’t trust AI to do a simple job like managing tree planting in the right place, how can we trust it to dig in the right place, or more specifically for the protection of people’s water supplies, dig to the right depth? We digress.

Last year DCC’s Reg22 Request said:
The MPA must ensure that the application provides sufficient compensatory habitat for loss of species rich / ecologically valuable hedges and associated species. As a dormouse licence is required from NE [Natural England] we need to be sure that the three Habitats Regulations tests will be met and that it is likely that NE will issue a licence. Please can the applicant provide information to evidence that the favourable conservation test will be met and that they believe that NE will issue a licence.
In relation to the Habitats Regulations tests, AI’s consultants argued that:
With regard to Test 3 consideration of dormouse has taken place since 2014 with supplementary planting of new woodland and hedgerows. These have developed significantly since being planted, with the latter already suitable for dormice. It is likely the woodland will take a couple of years before it too will suitable for this species.
Well, as of last week, the majority of the supplementary planting of 2014 has gone. So, where does that now leave protected species, Test 3* and the likelihood of Natural England issuing a dormouse licence?

No doubt all will be cunningly explained in due course. AI has recently been planting some saplings, below 135m AOD, in an effort to make up for what has been and would be lost, but it will again be many years before these develop into anything useful.

Remember, this is the same company that wants to establish itself as "true advocates of biodiversity":
Quite simply, biodiversity matters to us. As part of our overall Sustainability Policy we were clear about how we wish to manage our impact on nature. We stated that we would "manage our land holdings so that biodiversity is protected and enhanced, where practicable, throughout our operations and is considered in our site restoration schemes." Never has this been more true.
Brilliant.

But if biodiversity mattered to AI, wouldn't it have come up with more than the derisory amount of established compensation planting so far offered for the loss of irreplaceable habitat for protected dormice and bats?

If biodiversity mattered to AI, why is Devon Wildlife Trust concerned that restoration proposals at Straitgate "will need many years to reach a state in which they can perform a meaningful part of the ecological network of this area"?

If biodiversity mattered to AI, why has the People's Trust for Endangered Species objected to the Straitgate application, reminding us that "Compensation planting... for losses of irreplaceable habitat should be at a ratio in the region of 30 – 1"?

Quite simply, AI talks big but has failed to deliver anything close to the required amount of compensation planting. Quite simply, AI has had years to get this planting in place. Quite simply, "if your actions do not prove the truth of your words, then your words are nothing more than lies" - as the famous saying goes.


* Natural England Guidance Note: "the action authorised will not be detrimental to the maintenance of the population of the species concerned at a favourable conservation status in their natural range"19.
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Monday, 14 August 2017

AI hasn’t done enough compensation planting so it’s come up with a new wheeze

One of the marvels of biodiversity offsetting for planning consultants is being able to show that you can rip out 1.5km of ancient hedgerows, lose 6 mature oak trees, cut down 6000m2 of advance planting, not restore things for more than 10-12 years, replace natural history hundreds of years old with saplings and tree tubes - and then show a net biodiversity gain. It's like magic!

No wonder nature’s in trouble.

Aggregate Industries' Reg22 Ecology Report says:
It is recognised that ‘no net loss of biodiversity’ will not always be possible within a development red line boundary and therefore the option of Biodiversity Offsetting has been considered within the proposed development.
Based on the Phase 1 Habitat Survey, and the proposed development footprint, the application site represents 130.06 biodiversity units before development, and 183.96 after development; a net gain of 53.90 biodiversity units.
It is acknowledged that there will be a time lag between the clearance of habitats and the establishment/ development of new habitats of equal or greater value. 
But the real question is this: How can there be enough compensatory planting for dormice - if there wasn’t enough before, and 60% is now due to be removed?


AI's revised plans for Straitgate would see the removal of 1.5km of ancient hedgerows; dormice - a European Protected Species - are assumed to be in all them. AI has consistently underplayed the amount of hedgerow that would be lost and overplayed the amount of compensatory planting.

DCC’s Reg22 wanted to know:
The MPA must ensure that the application provides sufficient compensatory habitat for loss of species rich / ecologically valuable hedges and associated species.
As a dormouse licence is required from NE [Natural England] we need to be sure that the three Habitats Regulations tests will be met and that it is likely that NE will issue a licence. Please can the applicant provide information to evidence that the favourable conservation test will be met and that they believe that NE will issue a licence.
In relation to the Habitats Regulations tests, AI’s consultants argued that:
With regard to Test 3 consideration of dormouse has taken place since 2014 with supplementary planting of new woodland and hedgerows. These have developed significantly since being planted, with the latter already suitable for dormice.
However, 60% of this supplementary planting will now be removed:
6,000 m2 (0.6 ha) of advance woodland planting within the application boundary will be removed due to issues relating to Exeter Airport.
Despite that, despite the fact that dormouse numbers have plummeted 72% between 1993 and 2014; despite the fact that the PTES 'strongly objected' to the Straitgate proposal saying:
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;
despite Devon Wildlife Trust saying:
We note that the restoration proposals include the replacement of the existing hedgerow field boundaries but we believe that further consideration needs to be given to the fact that these will need many years to reach a state in which they can perform a meaningful part of the ecological network of this area;
despite all that, AI’s ecologist thinks that:
Given the above I am satisfied that NE will issue an EPSL for dormouse in relation to the Straitgate 
proposal.
Of course, working for AI he would, wouldn't he? However, who the "I" is we do not know; there is no name on the report.

Is it any wonder that dormice are going extinct?

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Monday, 26 June 2017

Decline in Britain's dormouse population far more rapid than previously thought

New research from Exeter University - widely reported in the national press - concludes that, despite being protected, dormouse numbers have plummeted 72% between 1993 and 2014, and the species is in danger of extinction:
An urgent appraisal of dormouse conservation is required to ensure the species’ favourable conservation status.
The People’s Trust for Endangered Species which runs the National Dormouse Monitoring Programme, and who has also 'strongly objected' to Aggregate Industries' Straitgate Farm application, has called for more action:
The declines highlighted in this paper are alarming and there is an urgent need to review conservation of hazel dormice to protect this much-loved species.

Whilst AI are planning to grub up 2km of dormouse habitat in Devon, the PTES, in conjunction with other parties including Paignton Zoo, is actively working to boost numbers; this article describes one example.

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Tuesday, 6 June 2017

Update

After DCC’s Reg22 Request and the Environment Agency’s objection, Aggregate Industries has spent the last month running around trying to address the multitude of issues that have been raised in the company's quest to destroy the ancient fields of an East Devon farm.

Readers can make up their own minds why Straitgate Farm, a relatively small site, should still be causing this multinational so much trouble after all these years. Perhaps, as we’ve said all along, the site should simply not be quarried.

Whatever the reason, AI has assured DCC that a response to its Reg22 Request and other matters will be produced by the end of this month, which will then be subject to yet another round of consultation. AI is working towards determination at the DMC meeting of 6 September. However, bear in mind that previous assurances AI has made on dates for Straitgate have rarely been met.

On the issue of water, and following a meeting last month between AI and the EA, the company will this week* embark on yet another round of borehole drilling and piezometer installation to monitor groundwater levels at additional locations. You might have thought that for this relatively small site, deciding where to put a few boreholes would have been a simple matter for AI’s experts - but apparently not. Six boreholes were drilled in 2012. Less than a year later, it was decided that a further five were needed. Amec, AI’s consultants, then helpfully highlighted that there was "no piezometer in the centre of the site" and another two were then installed last year. And this week, contractors will drill and install another five piezometers, this time "around the N/NW perimeter of the site." Three existing piezometers will also be replaced. If AI had simply assured the EA that it would leave the typical 1m unquarried buffer above the maximum water table, it surely wouldn’t be in this mess.


On the issue of ecology and mitigation planting, DCC’s planning and ecology officers met with AI at Straitgate last week. It’s likely that AI has been persuaded to modify the extraction area to reduce the amount of hedgerow lost; something we suggested in our response. Extra standoffs from trees and hedgerows for soil storage are also likely to be agreed. New dormouse and bat surveys are now underway in preparation for AI attempting to secure licences from Natural England.

On the issue of access, AI has apparently resurveyed Birdcage Lane and has produced new draft plans magically showing that two-way HGV traffic can enter and exit the Exeter Road junction within the existing confines of this tiny lane - without the need for third party land. It’s anybody’s guess quite how that’s been achieved.

On the issue of bovine movements across the B3174, AI was at Straitgate this week trying to work out how 150 displaced cows could cross the busy Exeter Road - without bridge, underpass or flashing warning lights - four times a day to new pasture - closing the road for around 20 minutes at a time.

This point alone makes the scheme unworkable. The Exeter Road is the main road into and out of Ottery St Mary. Apart from the obvious safety implications of vehicles, and aggregate HGVs, backing up towards the brow of a hill, AI will also need to explain to the ever growing population of Ottery St Mary why they should face such delays on their drive to and from work and school each day.

And all this to allow the company to truck sand and gravel 23 miles up the M5 for mobile processing.

If AI’s scheme didn’t look like a joke before, it certainly does now.


EDIT * Drilling now due to commence 12.6.17
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Friday, 21 April 2017

AI has decided to do another dormouse survey

Any hopes Aggregate Industries may have had to start ripping out the 2km of hedgerows at Straitgate Farm this year appear to have been dashed. Next week, some 200 dormouse nest tubes will go up around the site. The tubes will be checked for dormice at various points up until October or November.

All of AI’s wildlife surveys are now out of date - but, for now, the dormouse survey is the only one the company has plans to redo. Why would AI want to check for this European Protected Species again, when apparently it hasn’t yet been asked to by DCC or Natural England? It could be that AI knows it won’t secure a licence from Natural England with an out of date survey. Or it could be for another reason.

AI hasn’t done anywhere near enough timely tree planting for the displaced dormice to have anything worthwhile to move into; trees and hedges have been planted in the wrong place, and Exeter Airport also wants large chunks removed. How can AI get around this? It could simply do more planting, and wait for it to grow. Or it could try something else.

The last time AI was backed into a corner and performed an unscripted wildlife survey, it came up with a population of EPS - in that case GCNs - to prove why it couldn’t process material at Rockbeare. This time it will be hoping for the reverse. It will be hoping that the population of dormice has gone, or is certainly less than was discovered before. It will be hoping that the meagre planting that has already been done will be enough to support any population found.

The last population of dormice was found by consultants SLR in 2013. AI has asked a different contractor to do the job this time.

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Saturday, 25 March 2017

PTES ‘strongly objects’ to Straitgate development


People’s Trust for Endangered Species has strongly objected to Aggregate Industries' application to quarry Straitgate Farm, saying:
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 (Appendix 1) 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.

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What’s AI got to hide?

Since Aggregate Industries' last planning application for Straitgate Farm in 2015, a number of the documents have had a hair-cut. Here are pages 13-17 of AI's Phase 1 Habitat Survey from 2015, and the equivalent accompanying the company's new application.





Why has AI taken the knife to this document? Is it trying to save on paper? Or has AI got something to hide? Is it anything to do with "4.1.4 Potential Impact on Bats" and "4.1.5 Potential Impact on Dormouse"? Anything to do with "4.2 Outline mitigation options"? Anything to do with:
Mitigation and enhancement options will be required as part of the EPS licence application. These are likely to include:
Phased clearance of habitat over a number of years;
Retention of as much species-rich hedgerow as possible, in order to maintain ecological connectivity across the site; and
Strategic (early) planting of additional species-rich hedgerows/woodland such that the habitat is suitable for dormouse when phased vegetation removal commences.
If AI thinks its proposed mitigation plans for European Protected Species are acceptable - why did it see the need to remove this?
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How much compensatory planting has AI done? Google Earth tells us

Aggregate Industries would need to grub up hedgerows at Straitgate that are hundred of years old. Its consultants accept:
the presence of dormouse within the site, a species listed on Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended), means that all hedgerows within the site may be classified as ‘Important.’ 7.126 
It also claims:
Clearance and extraction of the fields over a 3-phase programme would eventually remove c. 1.75 km of hedgerow 7.195
It's a huge figure, but it's wrong. Because when you measure those hedgerows on Google Earth you find that 2050m would be removed - 1018m, 509m, 234m, 194m, 99m. AI's plans also show another 40m of hedgerow breaks. At a width of 3-4m that's about 0.7ha in total.

Meanwhile, at the Jurston Farm development in Somerset some 2398m of hedgerow, or 0.5ha, is due to be lost. Dormice have been found there too. Somerset County Council's Ecologist proposed an area of compensatory planting, such that six-and-a-half hectares of woodland have already been planted to provide new habitat for dormice; some 30,000 trees. In other words, 13 times the amount to be lost, which is understandable when immature planting is replacing established hedgerows.

How much has AI planted in mitigation? Last time, it eventually came clean in a Reg22 response that "tree planting in the south is a 20m wide strip totalling 1.2ha and comprising 3000 trees" 6.6. But those trees - or 85% of them, "30% oak, 25% silver birch, 15% hawthorn, 15% field maple" - were planted in the wrong place and were meant to be moved:
...the area is higher than 135m AOD and, following the recommendations of the Civil Aviation Authority and Exeter Airport Safeguarding Team, no new trees should be planted in this area. Therefore the tree species that were planted in this area are to be transplanted... 6.12
AI now wants to keep those trees in place, maintaining them "to a maximum of 4m to avoid future use of the habitat as a rookery", but the new application has revised the planting figure down to 1ha.
1 ha of new woodland habitat was advance-planted using native stock in January 2014, and c. 170 m of new hedgerow planted. A further 220 m of new hedgerow will be planted during Phase 1 of the proposed development... The new woodland and hedgerows will be primarily managed for dormice. 7.275
But that figure is wrong as well. Updated Google Earth pictures means we can work out exactly how much was planted, and the answer is 0.76ha, a shortfall of 2,400m2 on what AI claims.



AI would have to apply to Natural England for a licence in order to destroy this bat and dormouse habitat at Straitgate Farm, and demonstrate that it could meet three statutory tests. DCC would need to address these tests when deciding whether to grant planning permission. "If it is clear or perhaps very likely that the requirements of the Directive cannot be met... then the authority should act upon that, and refuse permission".

And how on earth could DCC be confident that Natural England would award a licence for work - when 0.76ha of currently worthless habitat has been planted in mitigation for the destruction of over 2000m of ancient hedgerows?

DCC spelt out the situation in its last Regulation 22 response:
Measures to mitigate adverse landscape and visual impacts are currently too general and unrelated to where adverse effects would be perceived. The purpose and likely effectiveness of advance planting is unclear. Mitigation measures for landscape are not integrated and consistent with ecological and other environmental mitigation.
Nothing appears to have changed since then - apart from Google Earth telling us the truth at last.

On the same basis as Jurston Farm, AI would need to have planted 9ha in mitigation.

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Monday, 13 February 2017

Devon Wildlife Trust tweets about Dormice





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Friday, 3 February 2017

‘Building hedgerows, habitat corridors & bridges is critical to this species' survival’


Dormice inhabit the ancient hedgerows of Straitgate Farm - the same hedgerows that Aggregate Industries plans to destroy. Virtually no established and appropriate mitigation planting is yet in place: 85% of the trees planted will have to be removed for airport safeguarding purposes [6.6, 6.12] and the hedgerows that have been planted are now in the wrong place.

Dormice, a European Protected Species, are on the verge of extinction. New research tells us why:
The existence of the UK's endangered Hazel dormouse is under threat as gaps in tree canopies are leaving the creatures unable to use their hypersensitive whiskers to naturally cross between habitats, a new study reveals...
Gaps in the tree canopy proved to be a major problem for the dormice meaning that gaps in their habitats need to be connected in order to help preserve numbers. Building hedgerows, habitat corridors and dormouse bridges is critical to this species’ survival...
Dr Grant said: “Although dormice can jump quite large distances, when the gaps between platforms were larger than 10-15cm, the dormice started behaving differently – they would eat less of the food available to them and also spend more time travelling on the floor as opposed to the canopy. This behaviour change would put the dormice in danger as this species is vulnerable to threats on the ground.”
Here's where dormice have been found at Straitgate. AI's plans rip right through their habitat.


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Friday, 2 December 2016

European Protected Species - Don't believe everything you read

For anyone minded to wade through Aggregate Industries' forthcoming planning application, it will be all about separating fact from fiction. For example, remember all that hoo-ha about AI not being able to process Straitgate material at Rockbeare?
It has been demonstrated that processing at Rockbeare is not physically possible due to a lack of silt space and clean water storage, insufficient stocking and processing area and the presence of great crested newts in existing ponds. 8.37
Most of those arguments didn’t stand up to scrutiny, but what about the newts?


AI’s ecologist had said:
It is the opinion of JG Ecological Surveys Ltd that alternative opportunities to achieve the operational objectives for the company while avoiding disturbance to the local populations of GCN at Rockbeare Quarry should be sought.
We wrote a bit about the subject in You couldn’t make this up! Likewise, Natural England also saw through AI’s ruse:
The presence of Great Crested Newts at Rockbeare Quarry is cited as a constraint to the consideration of using Rockbeare Quarry as an alternative location for the processing of quarry materials from Straitgate Farm. Natural England advises that the potential exists for this to be addressed through European Protected Species licencing and that this avenue could be explored through consultation with our licensing team.
But if "processing at Rockbeare is not physically possible due to… the presence of great crested newts", why was Midland Quarry Products granted a licence to relocate great crested newts to allow quarry expansion? Or does AI only care about wildlife when its suits them?

Dormice are also a European Protected Species, but of course AI doesn't say quarrying at Straitgate is not physically possible due to... the presence of dormice.

So it will be interesting to learn in AI's new application how dormice in Straitgate's ancient hedgerows would be protected; interesting to learn how many kilometres of hedgerow would be destroyed; interesting to learn how much mitigation planting would still need to be done; interesting to learn how much habitat connectivity would be lost.

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Tuesday, 4 October 2016

Dormice make national headlines again

After the news last month - Dormouse numbers halve over last 20 years - this endangered species made national headlines again yesterday, when the UK’s first black dormice was found in Devon.
The discovery was made when staff, trainees and volunteers from the Blackdown Hills Natural Futures project were checking dormouse nest-boxes as part of The National Dormouse Monitoring Programme.
Sadly, Britain’s dormice are under threat of extinction, with changes in the way we manage farmland and woodland making it harder for these delightful little creatures to survive. Dormice need well-managed woodlands connected by hedgerows rich in fruiting plants so that they can spread and prosper. They thrived at a time when we had many more hedgerows, and when hazel trees in woodlands were regularly coppiced providing plenty of nuts for food.
This black dormouse was discovered on farmland which is being managed with nature conservation in mind. The farm’s hedgerows are managed by hand using traditional techniques, bringing great diversity of wildlife including a healthy population of dormice. They are exceptionally rich in wildlife, supporting a wide range of species in addition to a healthy population of dormice.
All the increased publicity will no doubt be welcome for those trying to protect the species; less so for those plotting to decimate 2km of ancient hedgerows and dormouse habitat at Straitgate Farm.
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Monday, 12 September 2016

Dormouse numbers halve over last 20 years...

... and are "vulnerable to extinction in Britain" according to "the first definitive report on the state of the species"; a study which looked at more than 100,000 records gathered from across the UK over the last 25 years, and "thought to be the longest-running small terrestrial mammal survey in the world".

The wildlife charity, the People’s Trust for Endangered Species, found that the number of hazel dormice counted at nest boxes in England and Wales has fallen by 38% since the year 2000, and by 55% since the mid-1990s; alarming numbers when you consider that conservationists regard the dormouse as an important indicator of biodiversity - a canary in a coal mine.
The state of Britain’s dormice remains precarious: the population decline apparent at monitored sites continues and a changing climate makes their future uncertain.
This European Protected Species is found in the ancient hedgerows of Straitgate Farm - the same 2km of ancient hedgerows that Aggregate Industries wants to destroy.

Dormice "depend on well-managed woodlands and healthy, connected hedgerows for their survival". The PTES dormouse officer said:
“We can’t do much about the climate, so the only thing in our armoury is getting our woodlands managed properly and linking our landscape up through hedgerows.”
AI couldn't care. It wants to start earthworks at Straitgate Farm in the Spring/Summer of next year with, incredibly, virtually no appropriate mitigation planting yet in place.

Last year, in response to AI’s aborted application, Natural England reminded DCC that:
We are also aware that tree and hedgerow planting proposed as mitigation for both landscape purposes and replacement habitat for the dormouse population may not yet be in place in the quantity identified throughout the documentation supporting this application...
We are also aware that changes identified in the Reg 22 response in relation to the tree and hedgerow planting proposed as mitigation for both landscaping purposes and replacement habitat for the dormouse population may affect the quality and quantity of planting that will be in place. Your Authority will need to be satisfied that the mitigation plan proposed by the Applicant is deliverable in the quantity and to the quality required and within the appropriate timescales to provide the necessary replacement habitat.
Even if AI did start to plant some trees in the right place:
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