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Anton writes:
At the end of November 2009 I was thrilled to see an article in the Daily Telegraph about the success of a cycle path in Tewkesbury, a scheme that I worked on between 2001-2003. The scheme began over 15 years ago as a proposed relief road for Tewkesbury, but came up against public opposition and to date has not been built.
Locals (and Friends of the Earth) objected to the road, which would impact an old railway line that is a local wildlife site and home to a large glow worm colony. Gloucester County Council subsequently decided to provide a cycle path along the old railway line. The first phase of the cycle path scheme commenced in 2002, along a section of the route known as Northway Lane to Gannaway Lane. I was lead ecologist for this phase of the work and implemented mitigation for glow worms, which included turf translocations from core areas of the colony and design of glow worm 'friendly' lighting. This includes switching off the path lighting at 11pm each night. The cylcing press seem to have picked up on this story too! Read the Bike Radar article here. Wouldn't our night skies be amazing, if all street lighting operated in this way.
The mitigation strategy was the result of a 10 year study led by Dr. Paul Smith, who originally prepared a glow worm translocation proposal for the proposed relief road. Dr Paul Smith's web site can be found here: www.botanicalinvestigations.co.uk
Watch this space for more on glow worms
Read the Daily Telegraph article here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/6692922/Glow-worm-friendly-cycle-path.html
