Wildlife & Traffic
A European Handbook for Identifying Conflicts and Designing Solutions
10 Maintenance of ecological assets on transport linear infrastructure
New chapter (2020). In cooperation with CEDR Transnational Road Research Program ‘Roads and Wildlife’
Contents
- 10.1 Introduction
- 10.2 Developing an adaptive ecological asset maintenance plan
- 10.3. Maintenance requirements for ecological asset and wildlife management
- 10.4 Maintenance tasks sheets
- Maintenance of fencing: meshes and poles
- Maintenance of fencing: escape devices
- Maintenance of cattle grids
- Maintenance of screens installed to reduce disturbances
- Maintenance of amphibian/small fauna fences
- Maintenance of ecoducts, wildlife and multiuse overpasses
- Maintenance of viaducts, wildlife and multiuse underpasses
- Maintenance of modified culverts
- Maintenance of amphibian tunnels
- Maintenance of wildlife awareness signs
- Maintenance of signs activated by Animal Detection Systems (ADS)
- Management of vegetation
- Management of habitats for pollinators and other small fauna
- Control of Invasive Alien Species (IAS)
- Management of verges to reduce forest fire risk in sensitive areas
- Management of retention ponds to wildlife
- Management of road killed animals
- Management of Animal-Vehicle Collisions (AVC) data
- 10.5 References
- Appendix 1
- Appendix 2
Summary
Ecological assets maintenance
This chapter deals with the critical issue of developing appropriate maintenance of ecological assets to guarantee the long-term performance of wildlife mitigation measures and provide appropriate management of habitats related to transport infrastructure such as verges, ponds, and other elements of drainage systems. The step-by-step guidelines are designed to be adopted and implemented by linear infrastructure operators and managers with the objective of optimizing traffic safety while at the same time enhancing benefits for biodiversity and its advantages to society.