[bealers]

Hi,

We have a 3/4 acre garden on the outskirts of a small town. We've not been here a year yet so we've not done much but do have lots of plans to make it a micro holding.

At the bottom of the garden is a large pond. It has been on maps for hundreds of years and we know for a fact that in the past the Great Crested Newt has been officially recorded as living here. We know this because there have been (failed) attempts in the past to develop the land directly behind our house (slapping 15x 4 story dwellings on it) and as part of their application ecological surveys have been made that identified our garden as a breeding ground.

We're now deciding whether to allow the developer's ecologist onto our land to do a new survey. As we object to the developemnt (nimbyism notwithstanding they'll have to clearfell a load of trees, it's full of wildlife & it's a flood plain) we're not sure, but that's not why I'm posting.

Given that we're likely to have GCNs what can we do with the land? I guess there's a what *can* we do and what *should* we do question to be answered. Whilst we're blessed that we have a habitat for this rare and protected species it's also quite a big chunk of our garden and we had been planning to put the chickens down there! Are there compromises to be made. Could we pen the chooks in one bit and leave Mr & Mrs Newt a nice big corridor?

I'll get onto Natural England in the morning to find out what their take on it is (and I assume they can summarise my legal responsibilities) I can find plenty of documentation aimed at farmers/developers that have GCNs on their land but nothing about a (technically urban) domestic setting.

This is a pic of the pond taken from our house in Jan. Our boundary is the far side of the pond at the tree line.

[mojocafa]

Can't advise you as i have no knowledge, but what a fabulous garden, cracking photo

[lachlanandmarcus]

I don't know if you have waded through this document already, but it might be useful background reading
http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/file/791789

[HesterF]

We pond dipped in our seasonal pond last year just before it dried up for the summer and found some juvenile newts. I thought they might be GCN so looked into it a bit. We weren't looking into developing it but the answer was that we couldn't do anything to it. No digging it out, planting, anything. Having said that, I was in contact with Kent Wildlife because I really wanted to know whether they were GCN or another species of newt and they didn't seem too fussed about our finding - seems like there are quite a few around here. I also wanted to know about keeping poultry around - ducks or geese - and I'm not clear on that. In the end we decided to keep the poultry elsewhere because we've also got an enormous badger sett all down the side of the pond which seemed a bigger threat to them. Ironically we now have a pair of wild ducks on the pond so maybe they're clearing the newts for us anyway!

Hope Natural England (or your local wildlife organisation) can help more,

Hester

[bealers]

Hi,

I've spoken to Natural England now, they were really helpful and things are much clearer.

Just in case it helps anyone else in the future, the brief summary would be:

• We were looking to put grass carp in the pond to keep weeds down; NE suggested that they'll eat the eggs so don't (but it would not be illegal to do so)
• Putting the chickens down there is fine, chooks don't like the taste
• They hibernate above ground during the winter, so that's the time of year to be doing clearing work in the pond, but be careful in winter when doing ground works
• Avoid work to the edge of the pond this sort of time of year as that's when they are breeding.

Clearly we'll keep within their guidelines. I can put up with a weedy pond, I'm just glad we can put the chooks down there.

[lachlanandmarcus]

That's really useful and great news that you, chooks and newts can live happily alongside!

[Marches Farmer]

We have GCN's in our pond - look out your local amphibian and reptile group, who will be greater experts than NE.  Best for amphibians to have a choice of 3 ponds in fairly close proximity.  We piled up big logs and rockery-size stones for them to overwinter under but mostly they use the stone cellar under the house, which is complete with 16ft deep well - the ground heat exchange effect means it's always 5-6 degrees warmer than the outside.  Chickens will happily eat any newt or amphibian - I've seen one of ours running around the yard with one in her beak and with the other hens in hot pursuit when a newt has ventured off-piste in the direction of the slurry pit and lagoon.

[SteveHants]

Hi,

I've spoken to Natural England now, they were really helpful and things are much clearer.

Just in case it helps anyone else in the future, the brief summary would be:

• We were looking to put grass carp in the pond to keep weeds down; NE suggested that they'll eat the eggs so don't (but it would not be illegal to do so)
• Putting the chickens down there is fine, chooks don't like the taste
• They hibernate above ground during the winter, so that's the time of year to be doing clearing work in the pond, but be careful in winter when doing ground works
• Avoid work to the edge of the pond this sort of time of year as that's when they are breeding.

Clearly we'll keep within their guidelines. I can put up with a weedy pond, I'm just glad we can put the chooks down there.

I love the way that the quangos don't talk to each other - there is a prejudice against granting consents to stock grass carp - ad it is the EA who would have to grant you the section 30 consent to do so.