Biodiversity - Hertsmere Borough Council

Hertsmere Borough Council - Biodiversity, Trees and Landscape
What to look out for
6.16 The presence of Slow Worms is particularly difficult to identify. This is because they choose to locate under
heavy cover even when they are not hibernating throughout the winter months. The species preferred food
is slugs, which is why they can be found within allotments. Nevertheless, care should be taken when
digging through compost heaps as these warm, damp places are known to be a favourite residence for the
Slow Worm. Slow Worms are also fond of rocks, dense grass vegetation and other cover such as pieces of
wood and under sheds. As such, care should be taken on brownfield land development.
6.17 Great Crested Newts are easier to spot around April and May as this is their breeding season. Great Crested
Newts reach their breeding ponds by March and return to land around September. Great Crested Newts
need fish-free large ponds with large-leafed vegetation and rough grassland surrounding the pond. Great
Crested Newts are more likely to occur where there is more than one pond in close proximity to each other
that is surrounded by semi-natural grassland.
Slow Worm.
Source: Clare Gray, Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust.
(www.wildlifetrust.org.uk).
Further information:
• Natural England - ‘Great Crested Newt Mitigation Guidelines’ obtained from
www.naturalengland.org
• ‘Great Crested Newt Conservation Handbook’ obtained from http://www.froglife.org
• ‘Amphibian and Reptile Conservation’ found at www.arc-trust.org
A license must be obtained from Natural England In order to carry out development works that would
affect a protected species.
Water Voles
Where are they in the Borough
6.18 Although Water Voles are rare in Hertsmere, they have been recorded along the River Colne, around the
Hillfield and Aldenham Reservoirs and on the Mimmshall Brook in the eastern edge of the borough. This is
because Water Voles are herbivorous mammals that feed on a variety of grasses, reeds, sedges and rushes
and live in burrows along the edges of rivers, streams, ponds, lakes, ditches and canals. According to a
survey carried out in 1989-90 by the Mammal Society, Water Voles have been lost from 94% of their
habitats sites. This has been largely due to habitat loss and fragmentation, disturbance through the
channelisation of watercourses and overgrazing of banks, pollution, poisoning by rodenticides and
predation by the American mink.
6. Protected species and species of interest in Hertsmere 19