Wildlife Trust Looks For Newt-Loving Landowners To Give Wildlife A New Home

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust is offering landowners in parts of Yorkshire the chance to help save our endangered newts.

As part of a partnership project with Natural England, the Trust is working to create and restore ponds in selected parts of North and West Yorkshire to provide a habitat for great-crested newts. It is hoped these ponds will help to compensate for loss of habitat via development, strengthen existing newt populations and create new wild havens for other wetland wildlife.

The ponds are fully-funded, and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust will carry out all the project management and works required including obtaining planning permission – all prospective landowners need to do is periodic maintenance and allow occasional site visits.

The Trust is particularly keen to receive expressions of interest from Harrogate, Craven, Richmondshire, Leeds and Wakefield. Preference will be given to sites where between two and six ponds can be created or restored.

The great crested newt ponds programme has been running for 5 years, and in that time the Trust has restored or created over 70 ponds which are part of a 25 year monitoring programme.

John Thompson, Wetland Creation Officer, says:
“Great crested newts are very striking creatures and look a little like mini-dinosaurs, with warty skin, an orange belly with a unique pattern of blotches, and a crest during breeding season on the males. They are also very particular in their requirements, requiring the right ponds for breeding and courtship display – so much so that they will travel up to 1 km to find the right pond.

“Great crested newts are one of our most protected amphibians, and have suffered severe declines over the last century due to various reasons including habitat loss, pollution and fragmentation of habitats. As a result, our pond-building project for great crested newts is a vital way to help Yorkshire’s newt populations survive and begin to recover.”

A landowner involved in the project said, “We are very pleased with the result and looking forward to seeing the site develop and colonise over the next couple of years. Already the ponds, with just a bit of water in, add so much to the field and at the weekend we saw deer, fox and badger prints in the surrounding soil. Fingers crossed newts will find their way to us in due course!”

Corner Pond

If you are interested in finding out more about this project and think you can offer Yorkshire’s newts a new home, go to https://www.ywt.org.uk/news/fully-funded-wildlife-ponds-available-farmers-and-landowners or email info@ywt.org.uk to find out whether your land would be suitable to apply.