In October 2003 I was given planning permission to build a modern country house at Darsham, in a 45-acre wood, known as The Wilderness, which I have owned for some time.   The permission was granted under Planning Policy Guideline No. Seven, the so-called Gummer’s Law.   Attached to the Planning Permission were some fairly stringent conditions, one of which was to carry out various surveys, including an amphibian and reptile assessment.   This was done on 13^th April 2004 by an expert herpetologist called Louis Lawler.   The survey had to be done in the dark as, at that time of year Great Crested Newts (henceforth GCNs) tend to be in water but come to the surface when a light is shined on it.   Several people who had looked at The Wilderness had assured me that it was most unlikely that any GCNs would be in any of the three ponds in the wood.   Sadly for me, this was not to be the case for the very next day, while I was on the train to London I was telephoned with the distinctly unwelcome news that Louis had found a fair number of GCNs.

The rest of that day was spent in deep gloom as I knew perfectly well that the project was likely to be delayed for many months while the site was cleared of the endangered creatures.   Louis came to see me and explained what had to be done.   Firstly he would write a report to DEFRA and English Nature and apply for a licence allowing me to move the newts off the site.   He would have to train me in the art of newt wrangling and the entire site would have to be fenced with dug-in plastic sheeting to prevent newts that had been moved, wandering back onto the site.   He also pointed out to me that it had taken him seven years to qualify as a herpetologist!   The licence would take six weeks to obtain so I should be able to start work in early June.   This conversation took place on 15^th April.   Louis also told me that I was not allowed to carry out any remedial work on the site before I had got rid of the newts.

For many reasons which are not relevant to this article, the licence finally turned up on 6^th September which was great news except that I had cancelled all my holiday plans for the summer as I had daily been expecting the licence to arrive – how naive.    By this time I had been learning about the life cycle of the GCN from various recommended books and papers.   I spent £34.99 on a book called Amphibians and Reptiles by Trevor Beebee and Richard Griffiths to find that out of 238 pages, only eleven were devoted to my amphibians.   It seemed very expensive to me.  

By this time Louis had sent an excellent team up to drive in the fence posts and dig the trench for the plastic fence.   It was only on receipt of the licence that we were allowed to install the fence and the bottle traps.   On 13^th September, I finally started work.   Louis was there to show me what to do and make sure I knew how to handle them and how to tell their ages and sex.   On that first morning it was pouring with rain and very muddy but we caught 20 juvenile GCNs, 3 smooth newts, a common frog and a toad.   All were released onto the other side of the fence and near a pond.   Louis explained that the reason for so many juveniles was that they wait to emerge from the water until the first September rains.   They then wander off to find somewhere to hibernate, which happens at the beginning of November or the first frost whichever is sooner.   I would have to empty the sixty five traps every single day before 11.00am until I had either five consecutive days with empty traps or 1^st November whichever was sooner.

On 14^th September, Bentley, my lurcher, and I set off at an early hour for our first solo harvest.   It is such a relief after the long summer, to finally be doing something practical.   The first few traps were disappointingly empty but as I pressed on, great excitement, I found 4 juveniles and later on an adult female and an adult male and then lots more juveniles.   The method of transportation was in a bucket and I began to worry that the adults might start eating the juveniles but all was well and no cannibalism took place.   The adults are really beautiful with wonderful deep yellow bellies with dalmation type black spots and beautiful hands that looked as if they were wearing black and yellow gloves.   As the days went by, I became alarmingly attached to the creatures and found myself talking to them, specially the adults – not a good sign.   My early morning trips to The Wilderness became quite social with various friends turning up to watch and assist though nobody except me was allowed to handle the newts.   Every day I would write down exactly how many newts had been found and their size and sex.   Then at the end of each week I would e-mail the results to Louis.   Some mornings were pure joy because dawn is such a magical time and the light would be breathtaking but sometimes it would be pouring with rain and I would be slipping and sliding about in the mud and would return home soaked to the skin, cursing the GCN for making life so difficult! 

Having had low counts of newts for some days, I was rather surprised to suddenly find 19 on 18^th September. But on the 19^th there were only 6.   The first day that all the traps were empty was on 22^nd September but by the next day there were 4 of them.   One of the nastier jobs relating to the newt mitigation was finding giant slugs in the traps.   Some of them were disgustingly huge and very slimy but I bravely removed them and lobbed them over the fence on the basis that they were much too big to stand on and anyway it would probably be an illegal act!

As September and October rolled on, the newt count veered between zero and six with a few consecutive days with nothing but never five.   Louis finally told me that I could stop on the last day of October.   By this time I had caught and relocated 142 newts of varied size and sex.   I completely shredded a good pair of over trousers and ruined what had been a waterproof anorak.   All in all, though, it had been enjoyable and very educational and it was extremely satisfying to know that I had done my bit in helping to preserve an endangered species.   The newt fence was taken down in November to allow work to take place on and off the site but will be reinstated  in March to prevent any newts coming out of hibernation and wandering back onto the site where they would be in danger of getting run over.   As part of the Woodland Management Plan, new ponds will be created to encourage wildlife such as grass snakes and of course GCNs which hopefully, will re-establish themselves in the new habitats.   But somehow saving the newt doesn’t have the same ring to it as saving the whale.

Sara Low,
The Carriage House,Darsham, Suffolk, IP17 3PX

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