GBR Press x2: Opinion: Sober truth about newts

EXPRESS & STAR (Wolverhampton, UK) 10 March 08 Opinion: Sober truth about newts
What a pity your reporter chose to put such a negative slant to her article about the great crested newt (February 22).
It reads as though she has deliberately set out to persuade her readers that the creature and the law protecting it are some kind of unwanted national problem in regard to development and building, when from an ecological and conservation standpoint, it should be the other way around.
This sort of reporting can undo years of education and enlightenment by naturalist, scientists and conservationists. I get the impression she regards the law covering their protection as misguided, or some kind of joke, with the implication being that these creatures, and others like them, are of no real value or significance and should just be ignored in the name of progress.
There seems to be a tendency with some reporters to reduce matters to a farce: witness the claim of the three “solitary” newts and the cost of their removal to Cheshire County Council. That was misleading and gave a totally false picture.
You cannot have a habitat containing just three newts: there would be progeny from the previous breeding season which would have metamorphosed and dispersed into the surrounding environment. Since each female lays between 200 to 300 eggs, it would be virtually impossible to locate them once they had reached the land stage of their development.
The methods used to net and trap them only result in the recovery of adult specimens returning to pools to breed. Should the pool be filled-in, the remaining juveniles will find their habitat gone on reaching maturity.
The “fact file” accompanying the feature itself contained a few errors: the crested newt is only rare in Europe, where there has been development and changes to land use; in many places it is quite common.
As regards England, it is certainly not what could be described as common! It is widespread in geographical sense, but its distribution is local and fragmented since it prefers chalk or limestone areas. As for being extinct in Ireland, this is absurd since the creature never existed there in the first place!
P Bryce, Shenstone Avenue, Stourbridge.
http://www.expressandstar.com/2008/03/10/sober-truth-about-newts/

EXPRESS & STAR (Wolverhampton, UK) 22 February 08 Activity centre delayed by newts
They are just a few inches long – but they are threatening to ruin plans for an adventure park at a beauty spot close to the Black Country.
Baggeridge Country Park is the latest area to fall foul of the great crested newt, a tiny reptile with a great power to halt developments.
Planners had been due to decide this week whether to give the go ahead for the proposals for an activity centre on a one-acre site of unused thick woodland at Baggeridge Country Park. But it was then suggested that the land, part of a former colliery, might be home to the great crested newts.
The whole planning process has now ground to a halt for an investigation to be launched.
The consequences for the development and the taxpayer could be enormous.
Just last week Cheshire County Council revealed it spent £60,000 moving just four newts from land that had been earmarked for new school classrooms.
And, locally, the building of Fibbersley Park Primary in Willenhall has been delayed for a year. South Staffordshire Council has delayed the planning application at Baggeridge for further investigations.
The plans include the creation of climbing equipment, zip lines and cargo nets, linking tiny platforms 30ft in the air.
The park would be used by schools, youth clubs and companies wanting give their employees a unique team-building experience.
Leisure chiefs at South Staffordshire District Council lodged a planning application for the project in January.
The course would be developed in a partnership between the council and Kinver-based company Closer to the Edge, which is run by former military staff and ex-teachers. South Staffordshire District Council spokesman Jamie Angus said: “The application has been deferred after the council received an objection from Natural England.
“They expressed concerns about how it could affect some great crested newts, which are a protected species.
“More information about the site has been requested.”
The council says once it has received the extra information about any possible effects the scheme could have on the newts it will then be able to take a decision on whether the project can go ahead.
The application for the activity centre plan is now set to go back before planners in March or April this year.
http://www.expressandstar.com/2008/02/22/activity-centre-delayed-by-newts/

wes_von_papineäu said:

Baggeridge Country Park is the latest area to fall foul of the great crested newt, a TINY REPTILE with a great power to halt developments.

Click to expand...

Well at least we know the author of the anti new column knows what she's talking about. *Sarcasm*

Last time I checked, reptiles had water proof skin, scales, hard shelled eggs, did not undergo metamorphosis, and bred without the use of spermatophores. If she's going to write about how newts are hindering development in England (which as far as I'm concerned is a good thing, England is a severely overdeveloped country with barely any wilderness, and rapidly shrinking rural areas), she might at least care to find out what they actually are. Maybe if she actually took the time and effort to research the great Crested newt, she'd realize its importance. I can see though that someone who grew up in an urban setting, was fiscally conservative, or ecologically ignorant would have difficulty understanding the importance of newts.

Having lived in English suburbs, with smooth newts in my back yard and great crested newts just down the road, and having witnessed the alarming rate of urban sprawl within the country, I see any thing that prevents the further development of England's suburbs and rural areas as a blessing.

Nice to see that some of these press articles are being challenged.

It's about time reporters and the press caught up with the mood in the country and realised that the majority of their readership and the general public are in favour of protecting great crested newts/wildlife and their habitats. The reporters clear lack of knowledge about the subject, makes her look like an ill informed fool.

I would like to think that her boss will repremand her for a biased article that is inaccurate and lacking any basic research.

Jim

I agree, I know what you mean about urban sprawl. I just visited a site that used to be abundant with different newt species and possibly. A lot of development went up, new metro station, supermarket, housing, all around. Now they're minimal. The area is part of a small reserve now, but it happened too late/just in time. I spoke to an old man on the path and he told me stories of how it used to be.