Exclusive Woodland Homes – The Badger Sett

Earlier this month a set of new front doors appeared at some of Fingle Wood’s wild woodland homes. Reminiscent of a scene from Winnie The Pooh, the series of small wooden fronted entrances have been installed on a badger sett by a team of ecologists from Devon Wildlife Consultants. While there is an amusing side to this story, it is based on a serious act of wildlife protection under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992. Some time ago the badgers constructed this set under a forest track which, this year, is needed by the forestry machines to extract timber and continue the conifer thinning as part of the overall woodland restoration.As usual, the long-term view of the woodland managers to improve wildlife habitats on a landscape scale needs to be balanced with the welfare of existing populations. The conservation of the valley as a whole will inevitably lead to the temporary disruption of small areas of habitat and, as the woodland restoration and conservation manuals say “doing nothing is not an option”. It’s a fine balancing act.

The next Fingle Bridge Inn lecture is from photographer Paul Moody on 1st December 2016by Matt Parkins