Bats, planning, tree's and power lines

[countrryboy]

Alright folks

 

(Not sure if this is in the right bit so feel free to move it admin)

 

Long story short, just been lucky enough to buy a ruin in the country side with a bit of woodland with it (mainly mature/semi mature sycamore)

 

To do the house up i unfortunately have to go throu local planning dept who will insist on a bat survey, quite a few bats flying about already but i think (hope) my roof is clear, which has amazed me (think the rot, damp and poor condition of timber has scared them off )

 

I'm thinking of pre -empting wot they say and putting a load of boxes up so hopefully won't slow up taking replacing the roof.

 

Are the rules still the same that when a used bat box is put up tree is then protected for rest of the bat boxes life?

There is a hv (11kv?) power line running nearby, could i put bat boxes on thoose trees near to it, as being near to it i will never be felling them. Or does that restrict the power/utility climbers when they come to side them up every few years?

 

I'm hoping to over time fell a lot of the sycamore out and replace with other trees, and possibly pollard and ring bark a few to leave as standing dead wood. I'm i best to do as much off that now before i put any bat boxes up on them? Would pollarding be a controled? operation on a tree already with a used bat box

 

Finally when i first started climbing a good few years ago i started going along to local bat group for a while, at the time another climber was experimenting with creating cavities in the trees by boring in and shouggling saw tip about inside while leaving a small entry. Does/has anyone done this or does anyone know if it works and bats will live in it.

Have had a search throu here as well as googling bat stuff but not seen any mention of anything like that.

 

Cheers hope that makes sense to u and sorry for long post

[Stubby]

Alright folks

 

(Not sure if this is in the right bit so feel free to move it admin)

 

Long story short, just been lucky enough to buy a ruin in the country side with a bit of woodland with it (mainly mature/semi mature sycamore)

 

To do the house up i unfortunately have to go throu local planning dept who will insist on a bat survey, quite a few bats flying about already but i think (hope) my roof is clear, which has amazed me (think the rot, damp and poor condition of timber has scared them off )

 

I'm thinking of pre -empting wot they say and putting a load of boxes up so hopefully won't slow up taking replacing the roof.

 

Are the rules still the same that when a used bat box is put up tree is then protected for rest of the bat boxes life?

There is a hv (11kv?) power line running nearby, could i put bat boxes on thoose trees near to it, as being near to it i will never be felling them. Or does that restrict the power/utility climbers when they come to side them up every few years?

 

I'm hoping to over time fell a lot of the sycamore out and replace with other trees, and possibly pollard and ring bark a few to leave as standing dead wood. I'm i best to do as much off that now before i put any bat boxes up on them? Would pollarding be a controled? operation on a tree already with a used bat box

 

Finally when i first started climbing a good few years ago i started going along to local bat group for a while, at the time another climber was experimenting with creating cavities in the trees by boring in and shouggling saw tip about inside while leaving a small entry. Does/has anyone done this or does anyone know if it works and bats will live in it.

Have had a search throu here as well as googling bat stuff but not seen any mention of anything like that.

 

Cheers hope that makes sense to u and sorry for long post

 

Cant help you with the rules / regs re bats but we do do some work in a wood on the Pagham Nature reserve and we were asked to ring bark alot of the mature sycamore to leave it dead standing specifically for the bats .

[treeseer]

Saw some good work on this in oz and have tried to copy it. the below quote from the bottome of the attached article:

 

This is a procedure to make artificial hollows in habitat stumps on vertical sections.

Identify a tree that can be retained as a habitat stump rather than complete removal. Remove

the canopy back to a level that is acceptable to reduce the target area or risk of limb failure.

Retain any existing hollows if possible. (See Figure 1 and Figure 2). Identify suitable locations for new hollows.

Remove a faceplate approximately 30mm to 50mm thick and lower it to the ground. See Figure

3 and Figure 4.

The size of the face plate removed will determine the size of the artificial hollow.

Figure 3: Cut faceplate

Figure 4: Remove faceplate

Choose the desired entrance hole and carefully drill through the faceplate. Pre drill two holes to

attach the faceplate back on to the tree with screws. See Figure 5 and Figure 6

Figure 5: Mark out the size of desired cavity with boring cuts. Once you know the desired depth of the

cavity, draw a line on the chainsaw bar with a marker pen, so that each boring cut is similar in

depth. Carefully use a small chainsaw to carry out a series of horizontal boring cuts. (Rollomatic

E Mini with picco micro chain is very good for boring cuts). See Figure 7 and Figure 8

Figure 7: Cavity boring cuts

Figure 8: Horizontal boring cuts

Use a small crow bar and hammer to break out sections and form the cavity. Once this has

been done, carefully tidy up the rough interior with the chainsaw. See Figure 9 and Figure 10

Figure 9: Break out cavity sections

Figure 10: Cavity interior

Pruning and Habitat-- Balancing Objectives.docx

[countrryboy]

Cheers folks

 

Stubby do u just ring bark and leave u haven't been boring any cavities in the stems?

 

Treeser thats brillaint, been trying to think how to make cavities for birds for a while but that sounds like it should work and look quite natural, never really like bird boxes hanging on trees.

For the bats think they can cope with small straight line holes/crevices so wil probably just bore in and move the bar point about inside the tree

[mowingjamie]

im a bit more than half way through converting a 1828 stone welsh chapel, when buying it there didnt seem any bat activity, but by god the bats have costed me a fortune! about £5000 so far! just for two bats! inspections, serveys, paperwork, welsh giverment lience... the list goes on. make sure you have deep pockets, then make them even deeper! planning permission might be very difficult too, depens on where you are, national park etc. but it wont be easy. good luck.

 

- some of the barn conversions ive worked on in the last few years had to convert part of the barn into a bat roost (upto 50% on one place) costing £40,000 just for bats!

 

you'll only be able to work on any property with bats within the months of october - march.

[treeseer]

im a bit more than half way through converting a 1828 stone welsh chapel, when buying it there didnt seem any bat activity, but by god the bats have costed me a fortune! about £5000 so far! just for two bats! inspections, serveys, paperwork, welsh giverment lience... the list goes on. make sure you have deep pockets, then make them even deeper! planning permission might be very difficult too, depens on where you are, national park etc. but it wont be easy. good luck.

 

- some of the barn conversions ive worked on in the last few years had to convert part of the barn into a bat roost (upto 50% on one place) costing £40,000 just for bats!

 

you'll only be able to work on any property with bats within the months of october - march.

 

Gad. As much as I love the lil mosquito munchers, from the US view that is regs run amok; all the more essential to make them homes in the trees before the project falls under the radar--or is that sonar? --of the local authorities.

 

countrryboy; glad that may be of use. since our furry friends roost in vertical slits, maybe just cutting in that direction would suffice. Also, that would much lessen strength loss in the host tree; could even be done to a living tree imo.

 

Check the Kenyon's work in full if you have time; my cutnpaste/ interpretation is surely lacking useful details. They'd no doubt be glad to respond to any queries, as this was clearly a heartfelt mission on their part. Tell em i really liked their demo at ArborCamp 2011, and will be baaack!