Drawing on data from 14 Wildlife Trusts affected by the current plans, including Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, other charities and landowners* along the route, the report shows that HS2 will divide and destroy huge swathes of irreplaceable natural habitat and important protected wildlife sites up the length of England. This will cause permanent loss of nature, increased fragmentation of wild places, and the local extinction of endangered species.

The report finds that HS2’s current proposals will risk the loss of, or significantly impact:

• 5  Wildlife refuges of international importance, protected by UK law
• 33  Sites of Special Scientific Interest which are protected by UK law
• 693  Classified Local Wildlife Sites
• 21  Designated Local Nature Reserves
• 26  Large landscape-scale initiatives, including:
  • • 4  Nature Improvement Areas awarded £1.7 million of public money
    • 22  Living Landscapes – partnership schemes to restore nature
• 18  Wildlife Trust Nature Reserves – many are also designated wildlife sites
• 108  Ancient woodlands, an irreplaceable habitat
• Other irreplaceable habitats such as veteran trees, wood pasture, old meadows
• Extensive further areas of wider natural habitat
• Barn owls and endangered wildlife such white-clawed crayfish, willow tit and lizard orchid. Rarities like dingy skipper may become locally extinct.

In Staffordshire, Whitmore Wood will be one of the biggest affected areas of woodland, with the loss of 5.5 hectares, around half of the wood, and will currently be the biggest single loss of woodland on the entire HS2 scheme.

Kate Dewey, Senior Planning Officer for Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, said:

“In Staffordshire we are set to lose 19 hectares of ancient woodland, as well as other irreplaceable habitats such as veteran trees, peatland, ancient hedges and water-meadows untouched for centuries. Even worse, some of these losses will be for temporary works such as construction access. We know that at least 53 Local Wildlife Sites will be affected, including very rare inland saltmarsh, and many more important habitats that could deserve local designation. Declining birds such as barn owl, lapwing and snipe will lose their homes."

Nikki Williams, The Wildlife Trusts’ director of campaigns and policy says:

“The figures are grim and the reality is worse. The potential loss of so many really important wild places and the wildlife that depends on them has never been revealed before – nor has the damage that will be done to taxpayer-funded, nature recovery projects. HS2 will destroy precious carbon-capturing habitats if it’s allowed to continue in its current form – it will damage the very ecosystems that provide a natural solution to the climate emergency.

“The data also shows that HS2 Ltd’s proposed mitigation and compensation is inadequate and the small measures that they have suggested are inappropriate – amateurish suggestions of paltry measures in the wrong places. Nature and our climate are already in big trouble and we must not make a dire situation even worse – that’s why we are calling on the Prime Minister to stop and rethink the entire development.”

The Wildlife Trusts believe that if HS2 has to go ahead, a new approach is needed – one that, in keeping with current government commitments, takes a greener approach which leaves the natural world in a better condition than it was before.

Nikki Williams adds:

“The Government has pledged to create a Nature Recovery Network – a commitment to reverse wildlife’s decline by creating more habitat and green arteries that allow nature to spread and thrive once more. Developments like HS2 should not be a permanent barrier to wildlife – they should be designed to enhance, not harm, the environment. It’s not too late to stop and rethink now – before HS2 creates a scar that can never heal.”

The Wildlife Trusts’ report ‘What’s the damage? Why HS2 will cost nature too much’ can be downloaded at www.wildlifetrusts.org/HS2-report.

The Wildlife Trusts are urging people to send a message to the Prime Minister – stop and rethink! This e-action will be live from Wednesday 15^th January:  wtru.st/ReThink-HS2  

Early on in the planning stages of HS2, The Wildlife Trusts developed A Greener Vision for HS2. This report provides the large-scale thinking lacking from current HS2 Ltd plans and, if considered, could provide the net gain for wildlife that is so vital to allow our natural world to recover. While HS2 Ltd has proposed a green corridor along the route, it is far from adequate and can only be seen as a start to delivering a necessarily more ambitious vision.

The Wildlife Trusts are deeply concerned at reports that HS2 has removed its intention to “minimise the combined effect of the project” on climate change and the environment from its policy.