Animals in winter 6 (Moles)

This swathe of grass verging the  A487 was, I suspect, part of a field until the road was rerouted many years ago. Every year in winter a crop of moles hills erupts here.
 Moles use the same tunnels for generations just as we travel by highways established centuries ago.

Moles aren't popular with farmers and gardeners and they are still classed as pests that can be killed indiscriminately. But they aerate and drain the ground with their tunneling. In fact there's a well-established system of agricultural land irrigation called "mole drainage" achieved by machinery.
The internet is full of advice about about dealing with moles that ruin  lawn sprinkler systems etc; services are available to destroy remove them.
 (Of course you can get an artificial lawn guaranteed absolutely mole-free.)

Now we hear that the earthworm population has crashed in Britain
see here  with potential knock-on effect for birds - and of course moles for whom worms constitute the bulk of their diet. All part of our overall biodiversity loss.

As conservationist John Muir said (often misquoted but this is the correct one)
"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe"