Keystone Ecology
Keystone Habitats
Keystone – making ecology our business
Keystone Marine
Our marine ecological consultancy services include seabed, intertidal and sub-tidal surveys, seabed sampling, biotope surveys and mapping, marine mammal and bird surveys, plankton, fish and benthic surveys, GIS Mapping, Ecological Impact Assessment and the design and implementation of Mitigation, Monitoring and Management Plans.
Water Vole
Water Vole are a UK protected species and a Priority Species on the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) with a fluctuating but potentially increasing UK population according to the UK BAP. It is also listed on many Local BAPs.
Found along the banks of rivers, streams, canals, ditches, lakes, ponds and other watercourses Water Vole prefers riparian sites with rushes, sedges and reeds, especially those with a high layering of grasses and herbaceous species to provide cover and a year round food source.
Water Vole inhabit a series of burrows that can run up to 2m into adjacent land from the bank top. Their territories expand from April through the summer, contracting over the winter from September/October.
Our support capabilities for Water Vole issues are:
Ecology
Survey
Water Vole survey of rivers, waterbodies and wetland habitat.
Design and Assessment
Masterplan design and Impact Assessment.
Licence Application
Licence application, site supervision and monitoring.
Mitigation
Water Vole receptor site selection and compensatory Water Vole habitat design, precautionary working method statements, tool box talks, pre-works survey and site supervision, and translocation.
Management and Monitoring
Production of management plans and Water Vole monitoring during construction and post mitigation.
Habitats
Exclusion and Fence Installation
Water Vole exclusion fencing.
Mitigation
Habitat manipulation to encourage Water Vole to move out of an area.
Habitat Creation and Restoration
River, ditch and rhine restoration and channel creation, pond and lake creation and restoration, reedbed and wetland creation, aquatic and emergent planting.
Habitat Clearance
River bank destruction, channel damming and draining, in-filling of waterbodies, tree, hedgerow, woodland and scrub clearance, stump grinding and treatment, and turf stripping.
Habitat Management
Terrestrial, aquatic and wetland management for Water Vole.