New Homes For Newts: Industry Leading Licence Protects Species From Vital Rail Upgrades
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from Network Rail.
This is the introductory paragraph.
The industry leading initiative will see specialists build new, large-scale habitats for great crested newts to move to when crucial railway upgrades disrupt their existing homes. This balance will allow the amphibians to thrive in a safe environment and in turn reduce any delays to engineering work.
Hopefully, this will lead to the end of delays to engineering work caused by newts on the line.
The Anonymous Widower 
Remembering how much enjoyment I got as a boy visiting two ponds to catch tadpoles and newts it seems a pity to me to think that the natural world can be so easily lost. Those two ponds I spent my childhood exploring were filled in for housing developments by the 1980s are lost forever and children of later generations no longer have the informal means of learning about the nature around them.
Looking for the site mentioned in the press release it seems to be at Little Wittenham in the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire area and is classed as both a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a Special Area of Conservation (SAC),
An article I just read says it’s one of the best-studied great crested newt sites in the UK and comprises “two main ponds set in a predominantly woodland context (broad-leaved and conifer woodland is present). There are also areas of grassland, with sheep grazing and arable bordering the woodland to the south and west……… Large numbers of great crested newts have been recorded in the two main ponds, and research has revealed that they range several hundred metres into the woodland blocks.”
Comment by fammorris | August 15, 2022 |