Flightline of very rare bats near fracking site

The Cuadrilla test drilling site at Balcombe is close to the flightline of a colony of very rare Barbastelle bats, according to Petra Billings, a landscapes project officer with Sussex Wildlife Trust.
Entrance to the caudrilla site at Balcombe 30-07-13Entrance to the caudrilla site at Balcombe 30-07-13
Entrance to the caudrilla site at Balcombe 30-07-13

The trust owns Northup Copse, ancient woodland adjoining the field where exploratory fracking is taking place.

Petra says in a blog on the trust’s website: “This is an ancient woodland which has probably existed here since at least 1600 and quite likely earlier.

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“It has been managed historically as hazel coppice with oak standards, a traditional system of management which supports a high biodiversity, including woodland flowers, birds, butterflies and bats.

“The latter are particularly significant as one of the flightlines of the very rare Barbastelle bat goes along the field boundary of the drill-site, a few metres away from it.

Petra adds: “On the other side of the proposed site, there is an active badger sett. These nocturnal animals are sensitive to light, and continuous lighting of the drill site has the potential to cause serious disturbance to wildlife, not to mention the noise and activity.

“A briefing paper in the House of Commons Library notes that ‘producing unconventional gas is an intensive industrial process, generally imposing a larger environmental footprint than conventional gas development’.”

Views expressed by contributors on the trust’s blog page are personal and do not necessarily represent the views of the wildlife trust.