HS2 Ltd miscalculated impact on nature – Wildlife Trusts

Ongoing HS2 work at Jones Hill Wood in February 2023 at Great Missenden

The company building the controversial HS2 railway line has underestimated its impact on habitats and wildlife, according to a coalition of animal rights groups.

A Wildlife Trust report revealed that HS2 Ltd had missed trees, ponds and hedgerows on the maps.

The methodology for calculating the impact of the project on biodiversity is “fundamentally flawed”.

HS2 Ltd said the trust’s report was “not reliable”.

The Trusts are calling for a pause in construction and for the Government to require HS2 Ltd to reassess the impact of construction on nature.

The Wildlife Trusts said their investigation took a year.

“In addition to the flaws in assessing nature as it already exists, this audit has revealed that HS2 Ltd’s metric (their ‘accounting tool’ for assessing nature impacts) is untested, outdated and fundamentally flawed,” they said.

In order for developers to calculate the impact of construction projects on nature, features such as streams, hedgerows and forests are assigned values ​​that fit into a table and can be taken into account.

The Trust’s report states that mature hedges, which “provide berries, shelter and nesting sites for wildlife” were “received a lower natural value than the new hedges” that HS2 Ltd would plant. It said some streams, ponds and trees were “missed from the data.”

Using data from HS2 Ltd. the report noted that phase one, covering the 140-mile route between London and the West Midlands, would cause almost eight times “more wildlife loss” than HS2 Ltd. calculated.

Phase 2a between the West Midlands and Crewe would result in a 42% wildlife loss, compared to HS2 Ltd’s forecast of 17%, according to the document.

dr Rachel Giles of the Cheshire Wildlife Trust and author of the report said she was shocked at the errors and discrepancies her audit uncovered.

“HS2 Ltd must stop using a deeply flawed method of calculating the value of nature being impacted by the construction of the route,” she said. “It is amazing that a flagship infrastructure project is able to use a metric that is untested and not fit for purpose.

“HS2 Ltd should urgently recalculate the overall loss to nature by reassessing existing biodiversity along the entire route while there is still time to change the design and implementation of the scheme.”

Tom Oliver, professor of applied ecology at the University of Reading, told the BBC the report was “extremely worrying”.

He said the methodology used by HS2 Ltd was “ten years out of date” and that the organization was “assessing its own homework”.

“You can’t go back in time and undo the work done in phase one, but for phase two the importance of these natural habitats is so great that the extra work in terms of recalculation… seems like a no-brainer.”

A National Eviction Team security patrol outside a fenced off part of Bluebell Wood in Staffordshire which is in the path of HS2

In response to the Trust’s report, a spokesman for HS2 Ltd said the organization “didn’t recognize the figures” and “didn’t think they were reliable”.

“Unlike the ecologists who compiled the data from HS2, the Wildlife Trusts have done limited desk research and have not opened up large areas of land for ecological surveys,” the spokesman said.

They added that it is reviewing its assessment methodology and intends to “align more closely with the government’s biodiversity metrics once they are released in the coming months”.

The Trusts said HS2 Ltd should immediately halt all construction and enabling work and the legislation authorizing the Crewe to Manchester section should be halted. It asked the company to remap existing habitats and recalculate the impact on nature.

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