Support Your Local Cycle Network – And Save Endangered Mammals!
You may not think much of a tarmac cycle lane – but voles and bats think they are perfect!
With all the development that happens on the edges of cities and towns – there is less and less green space for mammals to live in. And many mammals need to look for their own ‘home range’ once they are old enough – and that means they need to travel.
Needless to say a patch of countryside has a maximum number of a species that it can support in any year – so in order to survive the less dominant and younger individuals need to head off and find their own patch of countryside – but what if they are living in a green island – a patch of countryside totally surrounded by housing.
How will they get across it without getting run over, eaten by a cat or starving to death when it can’t find anything to eat? And who is to say that there will be any countryside for them to find – what if they go the wrong way?
The Solution:
Small animals have very high energy demands, so must eat a considerable amount of food compared to their size – and so really need to eat on the move. And cycle tracks and train lines will offer them the equivalent of motorway service stations.
As they move down the cycle lanes, they will be able to hide in and feed on the hedgerow plants bordering the track – and so travel further from their original starting point. And hopefully this path will lead to another slice of countryside!
Old railway lines, closed roads and wide footpaths are perfect for changing into cycle tracks. They will no doubt already have some established plant life and usually lead to or past green spaces. Perfect for green development!
As part of an organised scheme – these corridors could all link up with other development projects and make a great rescue plan for native wildlife at the same time as making green travel and access to the countryside for humans a by-product.
Green Travel:
Cycling isn’t all that bad for the environment either – so by encouraging your councils to act on wasteland or create new cycle paths in your area can’t ba a bad thing.
Not only will it give children a safe route for cycling (rather than having to take the road to get to parks and woodlands), but it will also mean that you can ride your bikes all the way to the countryside rather than the chore of having to strap them all to the car!
So next time you see a council meeting or a local group getting together to discuss local issues – make sure you turn up and lets start getting things done around here – rather than waiting to see what other people are going to do and then moaning about it!