Artificial Badger Sett
Client: Undisclosed
Location: Undisclosed
Service: Habitat Creation
Project Outline:
We were asked to look into mitigation for a cete of badgers from the edge of a nature reserve so that development for a major retail village could begin.
Badger mitigation on a development site
Land developers were keen to start their development works for a major retail park but the area contained a large badger sett. The district council were also keen for the developers to proceed but an alternative home was needed for the badgers before Natural England would OK the commencement of works. The site is on the edge of a local nature reserve so the ecologists called on the expertise of JPR Environmental to create a new badger sett within the reserve.
The area for the new sett was not accessible to large machinery so a small digger and dumper were used. Soil had to be found from the site and was excavated from a spot close to the badger sett; this was used to cover the tunnels and chambers. Everything needed to be created above ground to avoid flooding the badgers’ new home as the water table is quite high on site.
The sett is designed so that the tunnels do not run in straight lines (which badgers do not like) but travel in different directions, turning corners; sometimes ending in a chamber and sometimes leading straight into the earth so that the badgers can form their own entrances and exits as they please.
Once the new badger sett was created, JPR installed some one-way fencing around the old sett and the ecologists used trail cameras to check whether the badgers were using the new sett. This was a project that needed to be completed in a tight space with limited access.
It also involved liaison with the ecologists, project managers, developers and the local council.
Benefits to the client:
The new badger sett was part of the ecological plans. The client needed to discharge this planning requirement before development could commence and JPR were able to construct the work quickly, efficiently and to budget, causing the minimum of delays to the development work.
And benefits to the badgers?
It looks as if the badgers are pleased with their new home.
