Wildlife Corridors

[agrumpycow]

Originally Posted by Jez

Yep your quite right grumps, it is a tunnel affair minus conveyor belt lol! How are animals encouraged to use them I can't be certain for sure but the fact that you stand no chance of your limbs being crunched and you haven't the need to even to try and challenge the road would seem the better option. My uncle in Wales has seen the great success of these tunnels and it's no hardship to roll these in and pave over and keep the road free from carnage, surely thats got to be far better on the psyche?!?

Thanks for the explaination Jez It does seem a pretty obvious solution that could save a lot of roadkill but I'd imaging the safety of kids & people in general will take presidence over any schemes that councils rolls out. Which is fair enough but it's still horrible when you see so many creatures losing their lives all over the place

[Jez]

but it should be all inclusive, lets not forget Cbeebies/Springwatch! Doing a great job to educate and uplift children and get them out there and involved in wildlife. Breathing Spaces~ Fantastic, why not corridors to breathing spaces "Double fantastic" so maybe lottery funding would be a better sollution?

[ring ouzel]

I would include green bridges as well as tunnels under the road. In mainland Europe there has been quite a few of these built as they tend to have some larger animals (such as bears) which dont take too kindly to squeezing under roads.

The bridge or tunnel is only one part though, there is also the cost of all the fencing on both sides of the road to funnel the animals towards the entrance. In the case of some larger species this will mean kilometres of fencing. A better use of money though than many other things.

[Jez]

Originally Posted by ring ouzel

The bridge or tunnel is only one part though, there is also the cost of all the fencing on both sides of the road to funnel the animals towards the entrance. In the case of some larger species this will mean kilometres of fencing

? Of the few tunnels I've seen I have not come across kilometres of fencing though thinking on that kind of scale I'd prefer to see native hedging used instead (just my humble opinion of coarse)!

[ron1863]

I ticked other. I think more should be done for our wildlife but this could be carried out when roads are being repaired - which seems to be all the time.

[BarbaraEmma]

I ticked the first box ,but I can't see our council doing anything about it ,not unless it could become law and they'd have to comply.Whilst laying new roads it would seem easier to put in corridors but adapting old roads is a huge job.Personally I'd love to see it but on this forum you're probably preaching to the already converted,it's not going to be top of every bodies wish list though.The trouble is wildlife hasn't got the political clout that's needed to get this started.
Barbara

[Jez]

You have got a good point there Barbara , but how is it then that more of these things are happening across Europe like Ring Ouzel pointed out? I just can't see why the UK should lack behind!

[NJ]

I'd like to see the government do more for wildlife, but in the midst of a recession I doubt this will be high on the agenda. It could be quite successful thought as wildlife corridors do work well where they are used.

In Canada for instance, they have Bear Bridges which pass over busy roads and it has been shown that where these have been implimented, the bears are more likely to use those once they realise the walkways are there. This took five to six years but it does work eventually (Megaconservation: Saving wildernesses on a giant scale - environment - 25 March 2009 - New Scientist).

On the UK front, I believe there was a project for red squirrel rope bridges, which were set up over large gaps between trees to stop the squirrels trying to cross roads. A study from last year (Wildlife Extra - News - Rope bridges help Red squirrels across major roads) shows that the squirrels do use them rather than attempt to cross roads. I find this encouraging and proves that even small projects help wildlife.

I know I'm preaching to the converted here but I found this really interesting when I looked it up and wanted to share my two penny worth.

[The Woodman]

A very interesting subject with some interesting posts.

Retro fitting tunnels, bridges etc. is extremely expensive and disruptive to road systems. It's the same with new road schemes, extremely expensive but neccessary due in part to improved legislation e.g. the Habs Regs.

There is an obligation on the Highways Agency (who have their own Biodiversity Action Plan) and Regional Councils to regard European Protected Species and their habitats.

A new bypass has been recently completed in south Cumbria on a busy trunk route and the HA have spent a fortune in mitigating for the loss of commuting routes and habitats for many mammal and reptile species.

On this particular trunk road, three miles from the bypass on a length of dual carriageway are two tunnels, originally designed with deer in mind. I don't have any images of these tunnels yet, but if you saw them you couldn't in the wildest dreams imagine deer ducking their heads to sqeeze along the tunnels. When that particular length of duall carriageway was developed, no ecological study was done, the tunnels were placed where the engineers thought they should go.

Back to the bypass, I took a few images this morning to show what efforts have been made to accomodate our wildlife.



This is a bat bridge, it replaces a length of hedgerow removed to accomodate the bypass and allows Pipistrelles to commute from their roost to their feeding area on the other side of the road. The balls on the wires present reflective elements allowing the bat to echolocate and follow what represents a hedge. Standard trees rather than whips have been planted at each end. They will quickly reach a height and allow the continuity of the landscape element, joining it up with the original hedgeline beyond the boundary.



This is an old pigsty once in the garden of the only house to be compulsorily purchased and demolished. It contains bat roosting and hibernating habitat of many designs and is wholly dedicated to bats.



Two of several tunnels allowing badgers and otters to safely cross under the road following known routes.



All underpass wing walls contain bat roost habitats, in this case look near the top of the wall where a slot can be seen.

This is just some of the work the HA have done in mitigation and I think they should be applauded. Thousands of native trees and shrubs have been planted too and the receptor ponds are teeming with life this morning.

Hope you don't mind this post but I thought I'd show something that might be interesting to some. It's not an attempt at hijacking.

[Cazzie]

Inspired pics there Woodman!

I haven't voted yet as I'm still musing about it all.

Travelling 2-3 times a week (approx 40 miles each way) to my boyfriends along the A59 mainly, I see many many roadkills... rabbits, hedgehogs, badgers, foxes, pheasants, partridges, grouse etc., and it makes me sad each time I travel this route. However, despite the deplorable losses - just how viable will the wildlife corridoors be to install every mile or so along every stretch of the road in the country? Can't honestly see the government or the landowners stumping up for the costly re-routing of our beloved wildlife can you?

Great in principle!