'Re-ponding Ryedale' - to help Great Crested Newts

There were once many more ponds dotted across the landscape - from truly wild places to private gardens. But today there are fewer.

Many species rely on the type of habitat that ponds create -one such species being the great-crested newt.

Great crested newts are the largest of the three native UK newt species, alongside smooth (Lissotriton vulgaris) and palmate (Lissotriton helveticus) newts. They are identified by their warty or granular skin, often dark brown or black (especially when on land) with dark spots. However, it is the iconic and majestic jagged back crest (with smoother tail crest and iridescent stripe) seen only on the males during breeding season that is the real showstopper.

Widely distributed across Britain, but absent from Ireland, great crested newt numbers have declined over the last 60 years, despite their fully protected status under the law.

This is mainly due to habitat loss and fragmentation, infilling of ponds and increased pollution. It is illegal to capture, kill, disturb or injure great crested newts and anything that may cause this is strictly controlled.

Creating habitat for this struggling species is one great way we can help them recover. But establishing a pond isn’t as easy as just digging a hole in the ground.

When thinking about creating newt habitat, we first need to ensure that the chosen area is ecologically suitable and likely to either strengthen or expand existing populations. We’d then look at ensuring the soils are suitable to hold water at the right time of year for breeding, before putting together detailed plans, diagrams and specifications. As ‘engineering operations’, ponds this size can often require planning permission.

At Low Carr Farm in Ryedale, we have created six ponds thanks to funding from Natural England. A contracting team worked over three weeks excavating 150-square-meter ponds that were up to one meter deep to create deep water for courtship displays.

In total an estimated 600 tonnes of earth were removed and re-landscaped for the ponds. In subsequent years the ponds will be monitored through eDNA water sampling to check for great-crested newt presence and absence. With the ponds already filling up, the signs are looking promising.

As well as creating habitat at Low Carr Farm, funding from Yorkshire Water (as part of their Biodiversity Enhancement Fund) has enabled us to restore past habitat too. Low Carr Farm is situated in the Vale of Pickering, an area of low-lying flat land in the Derwent Catchment. This area would have once been far wetter than it is now; it has been historically drained and watercourses have been straightened to make the area more suitable for farming.

The historic loss of wetland habitat in areas such as this has been devastating for the lowland waders (like curlew, lapwing and snipe) that rely upon it.

The ‘Derwent Lowland Waders Project’ will start to redress this historic habitat fragmentation by creating vital resting and breeding sites for these priority species. Costa Beck, which runs through Low Carr Farm, was heavily modified in the 1960s by deepening and re-aligning the channel, followed by the installation of a flood bank. However, the old meanders of the river form a distinct feature in the pastures adjacent to the beck.

This is most clearly revealed in the winter months when oxbow lakes are formed, which are u-shaped lakes that form when a wide meander of a river is cut off, creating a free-standing body of water.

Working with our contracting team, we used this imprint of the old river channel as an outline to install scrapes. Scrapes differ from ponds in that they are much shallower, have gentle sloping edges and are designed to flood seasonally. With the areas pegged out, our contractors worked over a fortnight this summer to remove a maximum of just 30cm depth of spoil from two sites, totalling an area of 2,750 square meters. This work is restorative, lightly removing historic changes to reveal and improve the natural undulations of the catchment.

These scrapes will enable more standing water on the farm, which will drain away slowly leaving muddy margins - a great feeding habitat for wader chicks. Being able to establish two types of wetland habitat at Low Carr Farm this year has been such a privilege, and we’re grateful to Natural England and Yorkshire Water for helping us support local populations of great-crested newts and lowland wading birds.

• John Thompson and Kate Bailey are the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust's Wetlands Creation Officer and River Derwent Partnership Officer respectively