CGO Ecology News...
- Ecological reports needed for all planning applications
- New DARN Facebook group and website
- Southwest England Regional ARG Conference 2010
- DEKAMER turtle project looking for donors
- Early success for Devon smooth snake reintroduction
- Devon reptiles on the move
- Another new employee at CGO Ecology
- New home for Elizabethan garden slow-worms
- "Silent Summer - the State of Wildlife in Britain and Ireland"
- New employee at CGO Ecology
- Current CGO Ecology projects
- Amphibian disease concerns continue
- Reptile refugia deployed on Spur Road
- Spring season begins for CGO Ecology
- Reptile exclusion fencing on the A338
- CGO Ecology winter programme
- A338 Spur Road works continue
- BHS & ARC Joint Scientific Meeting
- A338 mitigation under way
- September reptile training
- Herp charities merge
- Dorset herp group relaunched
- Bespoke training available
- Reptile survey training, 8th June
- Spur Road reptile survey
- CGO Ecology filling its 2009 calendar
- Survey volunteers needed!
News
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Devon reptiles on the move |
Saturday, 19 June 2010 14:41 |
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CGO Ecology has been tasked with moving a population of reptiles to save them from a quarry development. Several hundred common lizards and a small number of grass snakes are expected in the capture exercise that will take place in July 2010. The reptiles occupy an area of pasture and quarry slopes at the Headon china clay quarry complex near Cornwood on the southwest edge of Dartmoor. A new phase of quarry working means they will have to be moved to a restored slope adjacent to the nearby Portsworthy works, where gorse removal has increased the habitat's carrying capacity for reptiles.
China clay working has been a major part of the local economy in this part of Devon for more than a century. The landscape is very distinctive, with large man-made settling lakes and mountainous tips of waste from previous phases that quickly restore themselves to wild moorland habitat. The quarry operators, Sibelco, are currently working to full capacity to produce high-quality china clay and derivatives including paper additives. CGO Ecology is working on behalf of Sibelco's ecological advisers, Andrews Ecology. We carried out similar mitigation works on other parts of the same quarry complex in 2008 and 2009. Over 500 common lizards, slow-worms, grass snakes and adders were moved to specially-prepared receptor areas. |
