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28
Aug
New ponds proposed for Knaresborough Forest Park to help save endangered newts
Four new wildlife ponds have been proposed for Knaresborough Forest Park to help save endangered newts.
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, which has submitted the plan to North Yorkshire Council, said the new ponds would be created to help increase breeding habitats for great crested newts.
Knaresborough Forest Park consists of 60 acres of land that was returned to public ownership last year after a fundraising campaign raised £864,000.
The forest park, along with adjoining Long Lands Common, were bought to protect land between Knaresborough and Harrogate from development. They are now run as one legal entity.
In a planning statement submitted to the council, John Thompson, wetland creation officer at the wildlife trust, said the move to create the ponds would help to create habitats for the “rare and declining amphibian”.
He said:
The trust would like to create four small ponds at Knaresborough Forest Park.
Restoring and creating ponds in the landscape at appropriate locations will increase breeding habitat for this rare and declining amphibian, improve habitat connectivity and provide habitat for a range of other wetland wildlife.
North Yorkshire Council will make a decision on the proposal at a later date.
Knaresborough Forest Park.
The move comes as the trust launched a a partnership project with Natural England to create and restore ponds to provide habitats for great-crested newts.
The wildlife trust’s aim for the ponds is to compensate for loss of habitat from development, strengthen existing newt populations and create new wild havens for other wetland wildlife.
Last year, the organisation appealed for landowners to offer sites for the new ponds in Harrogate, Craven, Richmondshire, Leeds and Wakefield.
The ponds are fully funded, and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust is carrying out all the project management and works required including obtaining planning permission.
The great crested newt ponds programme has been running for six years, and in that time the trust has restored or created over 70 ponds.
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