Newt colony given helping hand by army of volunteers

A PROJECT which has attracted more than 21,000 funding is under way in the Denby Dale area to encourage a protected species of newt to spread and breed.

The great crested newt may only by a few inches in length, but locals are getting involved in a big manual operation to protect them.

Workers, who are mainly volunteers, have to climb over fences, tramp across fields and fight through undergrowth carrying their equipment, tools and materials to the project site.

Then they have to clear scrub, dig ditches and ponds, rebuild sections of dry stone wall and plant new hedges and trees. The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust has also been contracted to help with the project.

Five out of 11 ponds stretching over three kilometres of uncultivated land have already been completed near the embankment of the Kirklees Light Railway line, which runs from Clayton West to Shelley.

They will be linked by ditches to form an ideal migratory corridor between two known newt colonies – one in garden ponds on the Pennines Estate in Scissett and another at the end of the line in the grounds of Shelley College.

Kirklees countryside officer Andy Wickham is managing the Denby Dale Parish countryside project and co-ordinates the volunteers from the 10 Villages Conservation Group, Enviroyouth and the Steel Valley Project.

He said: “It is exhausting and back-breaking work but the newts are worth it.”

He hopes to have the project finished by the end of next year, and added: “Its success will be down to the newts.”

The project is being funded by the SITA Trust – which donated 21,000 – as well as Kirklees Council’s Environment Grant Scheme.

It is also being supported by a local farmer who has given over his land to the project and the Kirklees Local Biodiversity Action Plan.