Biodiversity and conservation

Biodiversity and conservation policy

Our policy, and aim, is to conserve and enhance our natural environment, working to avoid, or minimise, adverse impacts through good land management and operational practice. We recognise that our management of water, and associated landholdings, provides an opportunity for the wildlife and habitats that occur, or could potentially occur, within these areas to flourish.

We formally consider conservation issues during the planning, and construction, phases of all our projects, we seek practical solutions to ensure that we minimise the environmental impact each project has. We investigate opportunities for biodiversity conservation and enhancement in all areas of our work. We recognise we have a duty to take account of environmental issues in the early stages of the planning process, and have processes in place to ensure this occurs.

We recognise the importance of designated conservation sites, and our obligation to our landholdings designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), we will actively manage our SSSI landholdings towards meeting national condition status targets. We have a responsibility to put into practise protected species management to protect, and ensure the survival, of protected species that occur within our landholdings.

Biodiversity and conservation action plan

• Through the use of Capital Screening and Significant Environmental Aspects Assessment (SEAA) ensure that projects avoid damage to areas of biodiversity importance and that we identify and take the opportunity to enhance biodiversity as part of these projects.

• Undertake operational activities taking into consideration, and with an understanding of the potential impact on, conservation of biodiversity.

• Implement and report on our conservation activities, through our partnerships with local conservation groups and communities.

• Promote, and encourage others to become involved with, conservation and biodiversity issues to a wide range of audiences by engaging our environmental and business networks and working in partnership with other biodiversity bodies.

Biodiversity and conservation KPIs

• Ensure that 100% capital investment projects are screened to assess their potential impacts on the environment and to identify opportunities for enhancement.

• Conduct habitat surveys of all of our landholdings over 0.5Ha, analyse the results, work with partners to agree priority species and habitats, construct and implement action plans to achieve improvements.

• 100% of SEAA’s reviewed and updated annually.

• 100% of land assessed for biodiversity in the last 6 years.

• 100% of landholding covered by biodiversity management plan.

Biodiversity and conservation case study

Great Crested Newts at Broken Scar

Much of our amphibian work has been carried out at Broken Scar Water Treatment works in Darlington, where the entire amphibian population has been studied as part of a Great Crested Newt translocation programme.  This scheme involved the creation of an new habitat suitable for amphibians and the subsequent removal of the amphibian population from within the operational works to this site, over a three-year period.

Invertebrate surveys

Surveys have been commissioned at our northern area sites to identify the important areas for butterflies.  The surveys look also at habitats and are timed to coincide with the flight times of the adult butterflies.   The information enables us to ensure that sympathetic management practices, such as scrub control on grassland, are implemented and that appropriate monitoring schemes are put in place.  The surveys also provide a snapshot in time of the status of the various species populations at the time of the survey. At Hanningfield, Essex, a local expert carries out a weekly survey of butterflies each summer.

Small mammal surveys

Four sites in our southern area were surveyed for Dormice in 2004/2005.  A successful breeding population of this Biodiversity Action Plan species was found around Hanningfield reservoir in Essex and so an ongoing population survey has been set up with the results feeding into the National Dormouse Monitoring Programme.

Bat surveys have been carried out at a number of our sites to identify roosts and species that feed over the water.  At the Trinity Broads, Norfolk, annual surveys of bats using the broads and our water treatment works have been carried out.