Highways Agency

A34 Chieveley / M4 Jct 13 Improvement

Ecology

Although concern for the environment has help decide on the choice of route, some environmental impact is unavoidable. Measures to reduce impact on protected species and their habitats have been undertaken, and will continue after the new road is open.

One of the main priorities in the early stages of the project is to establish a detailed understanding of the ecological habitats. Following on from the extensive pre-construction assessment and fieldwork, we continue to monitor the habitats identified and minimise the potential construction impact.

Badgers

Biology

Badgers are familiar animals yet rarely seen due to their nocturnal habits. The live in social groups, which maintain a permanent and often extensive territory around their setts, the complex of underground tunnels and sleeping chambers.

At night the badgers emerge and follow traditional pathways through the countryside. They may travel two to three kilometres to reach their favoured feeding areas. The main food items are earthworms and other soil-living invertebrates and the best areas for feeding are old pastures and ancient woodlands.

Legal Protection

In many areas badger populations have suffered sharp declines in the past due to persecution and loss of habitat to agricultural and other development. They are now fully protected by law, both under the 1981 Wildlife & Countryside Act and the 1992 Protection of Badgers Act. The legislation also protects the setts and therefore any lawful works, e.g. developments which have gained planning permissions, which may affect badgers or their setts, must provide mitigation measures. These measures have to be agreed with the Government's conservation agency English Nature, to minimise any adverse impacts on the badger population.

Mitigation Measures

A range of mitigation measurers are employed to minimise the effect of road construction on the badgers and their way of life:

• Specialist surveys are undertaken to locate badger setts and their traditional pathways across the countryside.
• Badger tunnels are constructed under road at traditional crossing points where badgers currently cross the road surface at considerable risk of accident.
• Special badger fencing will be installed along the roadsides to prevent badgers from straying on to the carriageways and to guide them into the tunnels.
• Where damage to an occupied sett is unavoidable, under licence from English Nature, badgers are excluded from re-entering the sett by the installation of one-way gates at the sett entrance.
• Where setts are permanently lost to development new setts can be constructed. Many such artificial setts have been highly successful.

Bats

Biology

All British bat species are insect feeders and their use of animal sonar to detect their nocturnal insect prey is well known. The annual life cycle and habitat requirements for bats are complex and, for some species, poorly understood. They require safe and secure roosting areas for winter hibernation, different roosts for breeding during the summer, and many species need temporary autumn roosts during migration. Caves, hollow trees and many older man-made buildings all supply these needs.

With the loss of old woods and hollow trees and the adoption of modern building techniques most bat species have suffered steep population declines and many species are rare.

Legal Protection

All bat species are fully protected by the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act together with their "resting place". Where disturbance to bats or their roosting habitats is unavoidable, English Nature must be consulted, and a plan drawn up to minimise any adverse effects on the bats.

Mitigation Measures

• Specialist surveys are undertaken to detect bats and their roosts.
• Works are delayed in the event of locating a winter or summer bat roost to ensure that either hibernation may be completed or that young are successfully reared and leave the roosts before works begin.
• All buildings and hollow trees affected by the works are inspected before demolition or felling.
• Bat boxes are erected on trees or building, or hollow tiles inserted into new structures, to provide breeding or migration roosting sites.
• New tree plantings provide habitats for insects and therefore provide food for bats.

Birds

Biology

Birds have adapted to virtually all natural habitat types and many man-made or man-managed habitats. While many species remain common and familiar, others, dependent on particular habitats, food items, or nesting places, are declining in numbers. Many of these species are the subject of special conservation initiatives.

Legal Protection

All birds are given full protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act while breeding and it is illegal to disturb breeding birds or damage or remove their nests. A variety of measures are undertaken, during construction and development, to minimise the impact on bird populations.

Mitigation Measures

• Specialist surveys are undertaken to locate any rare species in need of special measures for mitigation.
• Winter clearance of vegetation is undertaken to avoid the risk of disturbing nesting birds in spring or summer.
• Where spring or summer clearance of potential nesting habitat is unavoidable, surveys are undertaken to locate any nesting birds that might be present.
• If found, the works are delayed until the young have flown the nest.

Dormice

Biology

Unlike most mice species, the woodland inhabiting dormouse, takes on the life style of a squirrel. Climbing in the canopy of the shrub and tree layer to feed on buds, flowers, fruits and nuts. They nest in tree holes or construct a woven ball within dense scrub, but will also readily use artificial nestboxes.During the winter the dormouse goes into deep hibernation in holes in the rootmass of trees or coppiced hazel shrubs or other safe holes in woodland banks. Its small size and secretive habits make this animal difficult to spot.

Its dependence on well structured woodlands with a dense shrub layer and rich in the different foods species required makes the species very local in distribution. As woodlands are lost, or badly managed, the species declines.

Legal Protection

The national decline in the number of dormice has resulted in the species being added to Schedule 5 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act (as amended) for complete protection. Where permitted works may affect dormice, consultation with English Nature is required, and the formulation of mitigation measurers to minimise the adverse effects of the development.

Mitigation Measures

• Specialist surveys are undertaken to detect the presence of active, or hibernating, dormice.
• Where hibernating dormice are found, works are delayed until spring when the dormice are active.
• Correct woodland management, tree and shrub planting and programmes and the erection of nestboxes in the correct habitat will all enhance dormouse populations.
• Dormice nestboxes may be used to trap animals for release elsewhere before woodland clearance