Planned road upgrade works for the A338 Bournemouth Spur Road led to a huge operation in 2010 to rescue thousands of reptiles from the verges that would be temporarily destroyed. Dorset County Council employed CGO Ecology to carry out the work. The reptiles were moved to several sites that had ideal habitat, but were unoccupied or had very low densities of the target species. Ongoing monitoring efforts have already shown that the translocated (re-homed) reptiles are doing well.
Preparatory survey in 2009 established that reptiles were present along almost the entire route of the planned A338 roadworks. Artificial refugia were laid at 10-metre intervals, and surveyed seven times in the spring. Reptiles were found along 17km out of 21km of verges surveyed; absent only from the section crossing the western floodplain of the River Stour. All six British reptile species were present, including the rare sand lizard and smooth snake on surprisingly-long stretches of verge. The subsequent mitigation works involved capture and translocation of thousands of reptiles from the Spur Road verges.
Reptiles were caught using small rectangles of thin roofing felt (shed felt or garage felt underlay), approximately 30x50cm in size. Whilst many ecologists tend to be wary of such small sizes, and of relying so heavily on felt rather than corrugated metal 'tins', CGO Ecology has proven that small felts are very effective indeed. They are efficient at catching all lifestages of sand lizards, common lizards, slow-worms, grass snakes, smooth snakes, and adders. The beauty of small felts is they can be deployed in huge numbers, at high density (2-3m apart, over 1000 per hectare), for a modest cost compared to heavy, expensive tins. Even if one tin (£7) is more effective than one felt (30p), it is not more effective than ten felts (£3). High-density felts can increase the encounter rate dramatically, and reduce the capture period (number of visits) accordingly.
The reptiles were moved in spring 2010 to suitable receptor sites. Many were released in adjacent heathland under agreement from landowners. (Tree and scrub removal increased carrying capacity of neighbouring land along the entire route). Where this wasn't possible, others were moved to ex-situ sites at Chapel Lane and Merritown Heath beside Bournemouth Airport, and Plumley Heath in Ringwood Forest.
The Chapel Lane site is a recently-created area of heathland and rough grassland of several hectares, that is maturing well, but had not been colonised naturally by reptiles. Two sites on the edge of Merritown Heath had been subject to extensive scrub and tree clearance to increase their reptile carrying capacity. The widespread species (common lizard, slow-worm, grass snake, adder) were released at these three sites.
The sand lizards (36 in total, including around 20 pregnant females) were moved, under an EPS licence from Natural England, to the Plumley Heath site, as its mature heather and sunny scarp slopes are ideal. Monitoring efforts in 2011 have already shown the the respective populations at all the receptor sites have overwintered successfully, and are doing well. Gratifyingly, the sand lizards at Plumley must have bred in 2010, soon after they were translocated, as juveniles born last year have been seen in spring 2011.
