Wildlife 'under threat' from High Speed rail plans

7:30am Thursday 5th August 2010

By Andy Carswell

RARE wildlife will be under threat if plans for a high speed rail route through the Chiltern district go ahead, a conservationist has warned.

Heather Lewis of the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust said the planned railway line would be “like the Berlin Wall” because of the impact it would have on the environment.

The preferred route of the High Speed 2 rail project would cut through the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in a series of tunnels and cuttings.

But this would go through three Sites of Special Scientific Interest, nine areas of Ancient Woodland and two of the Wildlife Trust's nature reserves. The preferred alternative line, further south towards the Hughenden Valley, would go through 13 Ancient Woodlands.

Miss Lewis, the Buckinghamshire Conservation Officer for the Trust, said this would break up animals' feeding grounds and destroy habitats, leading to declining populations – which she said were already “dropping off at quite a frightening rate”.

She said animals follow tree lines and natural landmarks to find their way around – but they would no longer be able to do this if the railway line is built.

Among the threatened species is a rare Coralroot plant, which is found in just two locations in the UK – one of which is in Weedon Hill Woods near Amersham.

Miss Lewis told the Bucks Free Press: “By fragmenting the landscape like this, you may as well have a 75 metre-wide wall. It will be like the Berlin Wall of wildlife as they won't be able to get across to the other side.

“The Government's argument will be they will recreate these habitats. What they don't understand is the adjacent fields will be agricultural and will have had pesticides used on them and won't necessarily be suitable.

“If the Government think they can create new landscapes elsewhere, they are wrong. They will never have these habitats back to this quality.”

She added: “I haven't seen any justification for the route they have chosen. They haven't convinced us from an environmental aspect. They haven't done an assessment to say, environmentally, that's the best route.”

Sites of Special Scientific Interest are protected by law, and an area of Ancient Woodland can only be designated if it is at least 400 years old.

Miss Lewis said: “They have been managed for years specifically to bring them up to a certain quality. You can't recreate them just like that, and it's impossible to recreate an area of ancient woodland.”

Embankments either side of the line will need to be cleared of vegetation, which Miss Lewis said would create a 75-metre wide “dead zone” where the line is built. The railway lines would take up 25 metres of room, and there needs to be at least 25 metres of room on either side, she said.

She was speaking after a delegation visited Kent to look at the impact the previous High Speed 1 project has had on the county.