Special survival route for great crested newts - 22/02/07
A Vale of Glamorgan Council project, which has saved hundreds
of rare great crested newts from going down the drain, could be
adopted at similar sites across the country.
In 2005, the Council’s Highways Division
pioneered a new approach to protecting the internationally
threatened species which was centred on a local authority-owned
pond which is home to South Wales’ largest population of the
newts.
The newts (Triturus cristatus) needed
somewhere to hunt for food and to shelter during cold or very dry
times of the year and, to get to these sites, were forced to cross
a nearby road and ended up falling into the kerbside drains.
Undertaken through a partnership between the
Council’s Ecology team, the Vale’s voluntary newt surveyor, Stephen
Lowe, and the Council’s Highways Division, with match funding from
the Countryside Council for Wales, the work involved moving the
drains away from the kerb, leaving a little ledge for the
newts.
The problem was initially highlighted by
Stephen Lowe, who reported that hundreds of newts a year were
starving and dying after falling down the drains. Now, recently
published survey results suggest that the kerb changes have had a
dramatic and successful effect, with just 65 newts found in the
drains in 2006 compared to 318 in the year before works were
undertaken.
Operational Manager (Highways) Keith Jones
said: “These works demonstrate the commitment that the Vale Council
has made to conserving the great crested newt.
"The drain modifications have proved to be a great leap forward
in protecting this rare species in the Vale, and, hopefully, this
innovative solution can now be adopted at many more sites in Wales
and across the rest of the UK."