Municipality Allocates 100,000 Euros to Protect Sand Lizards from Traffic

The municipality of Berg en Dal, near Nijmegen, is allocating 100,000 euros to prevent sand lizards from being run over. According to researchers, the animals are massive victims of traffic. Every year, dozens are killed close to a cycle path in Groesbeek.

The number of sand lizards in the municipality has almost halved in five years. Of the 425 in 2017, only 181 of the rare and protected reptiles will remain in 2022, according to research commissioned by the municipality.

The researchers say no Broadcasting Gelderland that the number of dead lizards is actually even higher, because some of the run over lizards have disappeared into the stomachs of hungry other animals before they were even counted.

There are also fewer sand lizards due to climate change. Because it is getting warmer, there is less heather, there are fewer open areas of sand and the low vegetation has disappeared. As a result, living conditions for a lizard have deteriorated.

The researchers believe that measures worth 100,000 euros are needed to protect the sand lizards. The municipality is adopting those recommendations. The money will be used, among other things, to install a screen along the entire cycle path, so that the animals can no longer cross.

At an earlier stage, 165,000 euros had already been invested in protecting the reptiles by placing screens at various places along the cycle path. This is now done over the entire length. Tunnels are also being built under the bike path, so that the lizards can still cross the bike path.

The Environmental Management Working Group Groesbeek, which has been trying for years to put an end to the running over of lizards, is pleased with the announced measures. The members hope to no longer have to count flattened reptiles, says Henny Brinkhof on behalf of the working group: “We did that every day for three years.”