High Speed 2, if built, will not just effect people – it will cut through the countryside, threatening the habitats of Britain’s wild animals. Endangered species are not just a problem abroad. Some of them live in Britain, as an email to Stop HS2 reminded us last week.
“It has been brought to my attention that water vole reside in the Chilterns and along the proposed HS2 route. Water vole are an endangered, and therefore protected, species in Britain. If the habitat of these elusive creatures were destroyed there will be less to protect – and of course if anyone but the government destroyed a single endangered creature they would be looking at some form of punishment. In other words, building HS2 will destroy one of our most endangered species.”
The water voles population has had a massive decline in recent years, disappearing from over 90% of its’ former sites (the population is Yorkshire has fallen by 97% over recent years). They are still found in the Chilterns, but if HS2 goes ahead what will happen biodiversity here?