Wildlife & Traffic
A European Handbook for Identifying Conflicts and Designing Solutions
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
Maintenance of cattle grids

INSPECTION TASKS
To check
- Elements are not broken or deformed.
- Ditches underneath are not overfull of sand.
- Cattle grid completely bridge the gap between each end of the fence
- Escape ramps from ditches are free of obstacles.

SPECIFIC MAINTENANCE TASKS
To do
- Regularly clean the ditch removing accumulations of rocks, sand or woody debris.
- Ensure grids are kept in good condition. Replace if needed.
- Remove any object placed on the ditch escape ramps that could prevent small fauna escaping if they fall into the ditch.

SCHEDULE
- Minimum: once a year, just before seasonal migrations or periods when target species movements are increased.
- More frequent inspection may be required in sections that are repeatedly damaged.
- Additional inspections should be planned following floods, strong winds, snow or other adverse weather events.
Maintenance of ecological assets on transport linear infrastructure