The scheme to convert the Shell Haven oil refinery site into a big container port is a major project for Essex. It’s being financed with money from Dubai. So it’s not surprising that a Dubai newspaper, the National is reporting on the expensive programme to relocate wildlife from there to a new reserve:
DP World says it is spending ?50m on an environmental programme that will cover the capture and relocation of the animals, plus an eight-year water monitoring programme…..
By this month, 300 water voles will have been relocated, while 350 endangered great-crested newts have been removed into 23 ponds north of the site, along with 30,000 smooth newts, DP World has said.
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About 2,000 grass snakes and adders and 6,000 lizards have been relocated to sites in Wiltshire and West Mersea.
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Some of the animals will be relocated to a new 30ha wetland DP World created yesterday by breaching part of the Essex coast?s flood defence wall.
According to this website, the water voles are being moved to the banks of the River Colne in Essex, where they had previously died out.
That would be an interesting story for the Echo to have run.
30,000 smooth newts – that does sound a lot … but when I cleaned my garden pond out a few years ago, I counted 70+ newts, in a pond that was less than a metre square – so perhaps 30,000 isn’t as many as you think!