Badger Fence - Badger Setts

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Legacy Habitat Management Ltd
Unit 9
Riverside Park
Sheaf Gardens
Sheffield
S2 4BB
South Yorkshire

Tel: 01142 760001
Fax: 01142 760111

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Legacy Habitat Managment
Newt Fencing

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1.1 Badger Fencing, Development and the Law.
Under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 badgers, and their setts, are protected under law. Interference with badgers their setts or habitat is a criminal act. Consequently it is an offence to kill or injure a badger, damage or obstruct a sett, or interfere with a badger whilst occupying a sett. A badger sett is any structure that shows signs of current use by a badger. This does not necessarily mean that a badger has to be currently occupying the sett for it to be protected. In addition where an action is seen to be reckless, an individual may be prosecuted even if damage, interference or death was unintentional. Prosecution under the Protection of Badgers Act can lead to up to 6 months in prison and a £5,000 fine for each offence.

There are, however, many times when it may be necessary to move badgers from their setts or interfere with their normal activities in other ways. For example, badgers commonly burrow into railway embankments, one reason for this being that the embankment will allow for good drainage of the sett. Badger setts can create an extensive tunnel system, with a series of entrances and nest chambers all linked by a series of tunnels. Over time tunnels and nest chambers may be abandoned and new ones created. In the case of railway embankments, this can lead to excessive undermining of the slope and the serious possibility of landslides. In such a case it would be necessary to exclude the badgers from the site. Other examples where it may be necessary to move or destroy a badger sett is where a new development is to take place. This may be something on the scale of a new road or motorway, which is seen to have national importance, or it may be a smaller scale development such as a housing development. In both cases an argument can be made for the closure and movement of a badger sett. It may also be necessary to obstruct access to a badger sett for the sake of the safety of a badger. Badger feeding territories may well cross roads, and in such cases badgers and or drivers may be injured in traffic accidents. In such cases it may be necessary to funnel the badgers towards a safe crossing point such as an underpass.

All of these actions in normal circumstances would be an offence under the Badger Act, but the Act does allow for certain activities when undertaken under licence. A licence application would normally be made by an ecologist or similar person, who would then set out the conditions under which sett closure and destruction would be taken.

1.2 Badger Sett Closure and Badger Gates.
Sett Closure can be undertaken through the use of badger gates. These are usually constructed from steel, and consist of a frame housing a swinging flap/door (fig 1). These are dug unto the ground to cover the sett entrance. Commonly badger fencing wire mesh is attached to the gate and pegged to the ground and or buried with soil to discourage the badgers from digging around the gate. The gates are usually allowed to open freely both ways for a number of days, but are then secured using a bar across the top of the flap to allow the gates to open from within the sett, but preventing them from being opened from the outside, so excluding the badger from the sett.

This process will need to be repeated for each entrance to the sett. In some cases this may not be possible due to the number of entrances or topography, or where badgers dig around the gates. In such cases it may be necessary to erect badger fencing around the sett. Gates can then be installed in the fence line to allow one way passage and hence exclusion of the badgers from the area. Badger fencing can also be used to prevent badgers and other large mammals from crossing roads, and/or directing them to safe crossing points. Similarly badger fence is often used to prevent badgers from entering civil or construction sites. This is of particular importance when badger setts are close to the site boundaries.

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