Two members of TNEI’s Ecology and Ornithology team have successfully completed their Tree Climbing and Aerial Rescue qualification (0020-13), further extending the range of ecological services TNEI can offer.
In particular, this adds another survey option to the range of bat tree risk assessments and survey methods which TNEI currently undertakes – a climb and inspect survey. TNEI’s ecologists regularly complete ground-based risk assessments in order to help determine the likelihood of bats roosting within a particular tree, prior to development or conservation operations which will require felling or pruning works to be undertaken. However, the team’s new qualifications will allow us to follow such surveys with close-quarters inspections of what appear (from the ground) to be potential roosting opportunities, in order to confirm whether or not such features are actually suitable for use by roosting bats.
Ground-based risk assessments are often followed by a series of dusk and dawn activity surveys in order to provide further information on whether or not a particular tree is actually being used by bats. The primary advantage of the climb and inspect surveys is that they allow us to provide a more accurate assessment of the tree’s potential suitability as a roost site – some features may be less suitable than originally thought, i.e. a hole may not actually be as deep as it looks from the ground – which, in some cases, will help us reduce or remove the need for further work to be completed. In other cases, the climb and inspect survey will allow us to confirm the presence of a bat roost earlier than would otherwise be possible, helping to reduce uncertainty over the level of mitigation required and confirm the requirement for a license to be obtained from Natural England, Scottish Natural Heritage or Natural Resources Wales.
Climb and inspect surveys can also be undertaken year-round, being particularly useful where sites progress over the winter, but submissions have to be delayed due to a requirement for active season surveys.
This new qualification will also reduce our reliance on mobile elevated work platforms to install bat and bird boxes as part of mitigation schemes and give us the option of locating remote bat detectors in less vulnerable locations, or at heights suitable for use in dense woodland habitats.
