SUSTAINABILITY

FEATURES
Demolitions + Amphibians = Population
Explosion! At DM Kineton
As the demolition ground cannot be
relocated due to the required safety
buffer zone, the amphibians needed to
be translocated to allow a safe
demolition area to be restored.
Middlemarch Environmental Ltd, the
consultancy arm of our local
conservation charity Warwickshire
Wildlife Trust was called in to survey
the ponds and to determine how the
amphibians could be relocated.
Great crested newt © Crown
Defence Munitions Kineton is located
in Warwickshire. The MOD estate is
2,500 acres in area with 13 miles of
arterial road, 19 miles of railway and
with a 24/7 service if necessary. The
Head of Establishment has a
responsibilit y for approximately 900
people on site or within the
immediate area and it is also home to
a large population of great crested
newt (GCN).
nature of these ponds restricted fish
from colonising, which reduced the
level of predation upon the amphibian
larvae. How could any self-respecting
amphibian resist? The ideal habitat
created by the demolitions literally
resulted in a population explosion.
In recent years GCN have significantly
declined across Europe, and now
Britain suppor ts a large population
which are protected under European
law. Like many other amphibian
species worldwide, smooth newt,
common frog and common toad
have also suffered declines in recent
years either due to habitat loss and
fragmentation or through disease.
They are legally protec ted against the
After decades of use, the demolition
ground, run by Defence EOD
Munitions School (DEMS), an area used
for controlled explosions (referred to as
demolitions) and training, was covered
with craters. Access was becoming
constrained by the water filled craters,
which had become colonised by
aquatic vegetation and surrounded by
tussocky unmanaged grassland. With
no space remaining to undertake the
demolitions without encroaching on
the safety buffer zone, it was time to fill
in the craters and restore the nice flat
demolition area.
However, over decades of use, the
demolition training had inadvertently
created an ideal habitat for amphibians
as the 70 plus craters had become
small vegetation filled ponds suitable
for amphibians to lay their eggs. The
small and sometimes ephemeral
New habitat creation by the Royal Engineers © Steve Edwards
32
Sanctuary 44 • 2015