Badgers are a potential issue for development schemes in light of The Protection of Badgers Act 1992. Work that may disturb Badgers or damage their setts is restricted and licensed for their protection. We employ a team of ecologists, including a highly experienced Badger specialist, to provide expert independent advice on all situations involving Badgers, but particularly those relating to development and licensing.

Our strength lies in our ability to deliver solutions and alleviate constraints in a responsible, practical and cost effective way. Solutions may range from monitoring an empty sett to building an artificial Badger sett and relocating a population. Our in-house contracting department employs engineers with wildlife specific knowledge who are able to quickly assess and address on-site complications that may arise throughout the construction period. This approach removes the requirement for additional third parties on-site, avoids miscommunication, reduces the overall cost and avoids unnecessary delays to a project.

Survey and Assessment

We regularly undertake surveys of land including residential and commercial development sites, highways, rail and pipeline routes etc. to establish whether Badgers will be affected by a proposed scheme.

Our range of surveys include:

• Identification & classification of setts
• Identification of foraging ground and territorial boundaries
• Identification of access routes
• Bait marking and monitoring
• Use of GIS for mapping of data, particularly useful on large complex schemes
• Radiotracking
• Recognition and interpretation of Badger signs and activity at setts
• Interpretation of bait marking results to identify territory size, boundary and the interactions between social groups

Licence Applications

Work that disturbs Badgers whilst occupying a sett is illegal without a licence.

At Keystone we are able to:

• Activate a countrywide Disturbance Licence on behalf of the developer to permit sett disturbance up to 5m from a sett between the period 1st July to 30th November.
• Develop method statements and apply for site-specific disturbance and/ or sett closure licences.

Impact Assessment

Impact assessment is required at various scales and is fundamental to the design of a successful mitigation strategy. We have undertaken impact assessments that range from concise reports for small scale planning applications to ecology sections of an ES for large-scale projects with several complex protected species issues.

Mitigation

Schemes with Badger issues often generate extensive public interest and the cost of mitigation to accommodate Badgers can be small in comparison with that of adverse publicity.

We have extensive experience in the design and implementation of successful mitigation strategies for Badgers. These may involve one or more of the following:

• Design & production of phasing plans for construction
• Design and construction of artificial Badger setts, including main setts
• Exclusion and destruction of setts, including associated monitoring
• Design and installation of exclusion fencing and one way badger gates
• Supervision and monitoring of work alongside occupied setts
• Design and installation of Badger corridors, tunnels and underpasses
• Identification and preparation of sites for sett relocation
• Use of buffer zones and protective fencing around active setts that are to be retained
• Preparation of planting to enhance foraging resources
• Design and implementation of management plans for Badger habitat

With our consultancy and contracting departments working together a seamless transition between the design and implementation elements of mitigation strategies is consistently achieved.