EMEC has a wealth of experience of projects affecting bats including survey, impact assessment, mitigation planning, Defra licence application, site supervision and post development monitoring. Work on bats has included several projects concerned with historic buildings. Recent examples include bat survey and mitigation advice at Wollaton Hall in Nottingham and Calke Abbey and Elvaston Castle in Derbyshire.

                           

EMEC has supervised work under licence to a number of buildings and has provided details of mitigation features such as bat-access points, bat boxes and bat lofts.

                           

EMEC are experienced in Great Crested Newt survey, mitigation and licensing. Projects have been undertaken in connection with road schemes, housing development, pipelines, quarrying and flood defence.

                           

EMEC has undertaken numerous Ecological Impact Assessments, both as part of statutory EIAs and as stand-alone projects. These have covered a diverse range of operations including construction, pipelines, quarries, water transfer and flood defence.

                           

EMEC was employed by Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust to assess the ecological impact of a proposed Visitor Centre in Attenborough Nature Reserve SSSI. Through sensitive location, design and development timetabling, ecological impacts on this nationally important site were avoided. Habitat creation undertaken as part of the Visitor Centre development is achieving substantial ecological gains.

                           

EMEC has considerable experience of Ecological Assessment for pipeline projects. Examples include a 17km pipeline on the Nottinghamshire-Derbyshire border for Severn Trent Water. This included a wide range of ecological surveys and mitigation advice. A recent EA for a Severn Trent project at Amen Corner, Rufford, Nottinghamshire identified an important great crested newt population, which was protected from harm by fencing and pitfall trapping prior to pipeline installation. Another EA at Wanlip, Leicestershire showed that grass snakes were using an area proposed for development. The area was subsequently isolated with fencing and grass snakes removed by the use of refuges or 'tins'.

                           

Over the years, EMEC has produced conservation management plans and briefs for over 350 Severn Trent Water sites, including reservoirs, farms and treatment works. These are intended to maximise the ecological value of the sites and ensure suitable conditions for the many important associated species such as Lapwing, Skylark and Water Vole. EMEC has also carried out otter surveys along the River Trent and other waterways and is in the process of providing mitigation advice for a number of clients.

                           

The management plans that EMEC produced for Dunkirk Pond and Martin’s Pond (Nottingham City Council Nature Reserves) had to provide practical management advice that balanced conservation objectives with those of fishing and recreation. The annual white-clawed crayfish monitoring at Newstead Abbey provides data on this important population in the upper course of the River Leen.

                           

During the course of survey work, EMEC from time to time identifies invasive foreign species such as Japanese knotweed, signal crayfish, harlequin ladybird and Himalayan balsam. Advice is provided where appropriate regarding control and prevention of spread. A recent discovery close to Nottingham was of the mysid shrimp Hemimysis anomala.