By Staffordshire Wildlife Trust. Cover Photo: Great Crested Newt by Peter Case.
Staffordshire Wildlife Trust collaborate with the Newt Conservation Partnership to create and restore ponds across the county for the benefit of great crested newts.
Clean water ponds and newt-friendly terrestrial habitat are being created and restored through this successful partnership. The scheme is compensating for the environmental impacts of development, helping to strengthen and expand existing great crested newt populations, and providing essential habitat for other wetland wildlife.
Fully funded by the Newt Conservation Partnership, who carry out all the work and project management, participating landowners receive a generous annual payment for maintaining ponds to an agreed standard and allowing NCP to conduct an annual site visit for monitoring. Landowner agreements are flexible and can run on a rolling basis from five up to 25 years.
Jonathan Groom, Monitoring Officer at Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, said: “This is a great opportunity for landowners to create or restore wildlife ponds on their patch. A desk-study and site visit will be carried out to confirm if potential pond sites will be suitable for newts.
“This is an ongoing programme so there is no deadline. Applications can be submitted at any time throughout the year. If you’re interested in applying, please read through the criteria below and get in touch via email if your land is suitable.”
Perfect pond criteria:
A large enough area to create or restore between two and six ponds.
The minimum and optimum size of each pond is 150-400m2 with a central depth of 1m.
The pond must be within 500m of another existing pond.
Ground conditions need to be such that the pond will hold water throughout the year, in most years.
The pond must be in an area not likely to be polluted by runoff or any other sources of pollution.
Chosen locality should not be liable to flooding from rivers or streams, to prevent fish entering the pond, or excessive use by wildfowl.
Ideally the chosen area must not be contaminated by invasive non-native species, such as Himalayan Balsam.
Those who are interested are asked to email Jonathan Groom at j.groom@staffs-wildlife.org.uk using the subject title ‘GCN pond funding’ with the following information:Name, contact details and the address of pond site. A 10 figure grid reference (or What3Words) of the location where the proposed new ponds or existing ponds are located.
