Overview

We are Welsh Government Framework Ecologists for Cadw, and for many years have provided biodiversity advice on heritage projects to National Trust, English Heritage, Natural England, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), various local authorities and private organisations, such as Blenheim Palace.

We have a good understanding of the obligations and constraints placed on managers of heritage sites and we are able to work closely with specialist architects, building engineers, funding organisations.

Heritage projects often require advice relating to protected species, particularly bats; BSG Ecology has one of the UK’s most experienced teams in bat survey, mitigation, licensing and assessment.

Ecology Consultancy Services

We can provide advice and support at all stages of a project from conception, securing any necessary consents, to project implementation, where the delivery of ecological mitigation or enhancement measures is required.

Our capability includes the following services:

• Preliminary site appraisal – to enable early understanding of survey requirements, project risk and opportunities;
• Extended Phase 1 habitat survey – the standard baseline ecological survey technique;

• Detailed building surveys for bats, using a wide range of techniques and technology, including thermal imaging cameras,
• Survey of trees for bats;
• Specialist survey for protected species: botanical survey (for rare or protected plants), barn owl survey (barn owl often nests in old structures and trees), and freshwater and terrestrial invertebrate survey (parkland can be of high value for invertebrates).
• Technical reports to accompany planning applications or other types of consent, including Ecological Impact Assessment (EcIA);
• Expert advice relating to protected species licensing and mitigation and various other ecological issues;
• We provide technical advice for stakeholder consultation events and through attendance or the production of written material to promote positive engagement;
• We frequently provide training on ecology issues for those involved in day-to-day management of heritage sites (habitat management and bat awareness training);
• We prepare Biodiversity Management Plans and can undertake habitat condition monitoring;
• Conservation Management Plans: We can provide the ecology input to Conservation Management Plans (CMP);
• We are able to provide survey data in GIS format for integration into GIS databases.