THEY are tiny little creatures and they’re causing a massive problem.
But willing volunteers believe it’s definitely worth the effort to help newts.
A project to provide new habitats in Denby Dale for the Great Crested newt is proving a huge task.
The volunteers are creating a series of ponds linked by ditches that will encourage known colonies of Great Crested Newts – a protected species – to spread and breed.Š
The problem is that the ponds are being created alongside the Kirklees Light Railway line which runs from Clayton West to Shelley and access is very difficult.
Just to get to the project site, the workers, who are mainly volunteers, have to climb over fences, tramp across fields and fight through undergrowth – carrying all their equipment, tools and materials with them.
That includes the plastic liners for the ponds and ditches.Š
And once on site,Š there is scrub to clear and ponds to dig out by hand and then line.
Kirklees Countryside Officer Andy Wickham, who is attached to the Denby Dale Parish Countryside Project, said: “It is exhausting and back-breaking work, but the newts are worth it.”
He is managing the project and co-ordinating volunteers such as the 10 Villages Conservation Group, Enviroyouth and the Steel Valley Project to do the necessary work.
The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust has also been contracted to dig the ponds and ditches and clear scrub.
The plan is to create 11 ponds over a three kilometre stretch of uncultivated land alongside the railway track embankment. Five are nearing completion.
As part of the project, sections of dry stone wall are being rebuilt by professional dry stone waller Hayden Cockcroft, an original Enviroyouth member, and new hedges are being laid.
Once completed the ponds and ditches will form an ideal migratory corridor for Great Crested Newts which have been found close by in garden ponds on the Pennine Estate in Scissett.
The volunteers hope they will link up with another colony that has been found in the grounds of Shelley College.
The project is being carried out with funding of more than £21,000 from the SITA Trust and additional funding from Kirklees Council’s Environment Grant Scheme and in partnership with the Kirklees Light Railway.
It is also being supported by the local farmer, who has given access over his land to the project site.
Mr Wickham hopes to have the project completed by the end of next year.