Greener transport network to provide highways for wildlife

The areas of vegetation growing alongside the transport network, known as “green corridors”, are to be enhanced as part of a £3 million pilot project drawing together Natural England, the Highways Agency, Network Rail and Nature Improvement Area (NIA) partnerships.

It will ensure that these green corridors can accommodate more wildlife – especially pollinators – and enable greater movement between sites.

For the first time, this type of conservation work will not only focus on improving conditions for plants, animals and insects, it will also benefit transport users and the wider public by making infrastructure more resilient to the growing impacts of climate change, such as increased flooding and winter storms.

In addition, it will help to tackle the perennial problem of “leaves on the line” and, in the right areas, open up views for rail passengers and motorists.

The pilot is a product of the government’s Natural Environment White Paper in 2011 which pledged to bring together transport and conservation partners in the “creation of coherent and resilient ecological networks”.

It will focus on the NIAs in Morecambe Bay, between Cumbria and Lancashire, and the Humberhead Levels, straddling Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. If the 3-year pilot is successful it could usher in a similar approach across the country.

The rail network has 32,000 km (20,000 miles) of green corridors, also known as the “soft estate”, while the Highways Agency has 30,000 hectares of land in addition to the extensive road infrastructure managed by local authorities. Other linear infrastructure such as canals, cycleways and power lines could also benefit.

The aims of the pilot are:

- to establish species-rich grass verges and selective coppicing to promote the growth of plant and pollinator species such as bees, supporting the government’s National Pollinator Strategy (this could also reduce hazards associated with tree and leaf fall)

- to create a greater variety of habitats on transport’s soft estate to encourage more wildlife to live in and travel along the corridors

- to tailor the design of roadside habitats to reduce the risk of accidents caused by wildlife emerging unseen directly onto the carriageway

- to create wetland swales and ponds on land in or near the soft estate which can store carbon dioxide emissions, provide wildlife habitat and improve the quality and drainage of water, reducing the likelihood of flooding on the transport network

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