SUSTAINABILITY

FEATURES
use of all indiscriminate means of
capture and killing. The common
toad is also listed as a Species of
Principal Impor tance for Nature
Conser vation in England.
To replace the loss of the breeding
ponds, terrestrial foraging and
hibernation areas, two existing large
ponds were restored, three large ponds
and new tussocky bunds and
hibernacula were created. The new
terrestrial foraging bunds, seeded with
wildflower species, is a third larger than
the terrestrial foraging ground lost
within the demolition area. The
creation of new and the restored ponds
will contribute to the local Biodiversity
Action Plans for both newts and ponds.
One target for the local Biodiversity
Action Plan for ponds is to restore 142
degraded pond sites by 2026, and this
project has contributed two ponds
within one year.
During the project, exclusion fencing,
pitfall traps and refugia were installed
to enable the ecologists to catch all of
the GCN and other amphibians before
the works began. The population of
GCN present on site required a
minimum of 60 days trapping under
Natural England guidelines before the
area could be considered clear of
amphibians. During the trapping
period a total of 131 GCN, 50 smooth
newts, 4 frogs and 323 toads were
caught and moved to suitable habitat
away from the remediation area. To
ensure that the amphibians do not
Common toad © Crown
Restored pond © Steve Edwards
return to the demolition area,
permanent exclusion fencing was
installed, preventing the amphibians
from colonising any new craters which
will be formed as the normal
operations continue.
To facilitate the work s the Royal
Engineers were called in from Bicester
to under take the habitat creation and
ecological enhancements whilst
restoring the demolition area for
operations and training. The work
was conducted over four phases with
Phase 1 seeing a total of 3,320m 3 of
spoil being removed having dug
down to the deepest point of 2m,
weighing in at 4,824 tonnes which
then had to be relocated on site until
reused for landscaping. Phase 2 saw
the excavation of the new ponds.
Phase 3 was to restore the demolition
ground and Phase 4 is to maintain the
demolition ground to ensure the GCN
do not return to the impact area. By
March 2015, the plant work s were
completed and the demolition
ground handed back to DEMS Trg
Regt fully operational, with a new
purpose built habitat for the new ts
to thrive in.
All in all, this project took over two years
to complete successfully, with the
involvement of many stakeholders.
These included the on-site DM Kineton
personnel, DEMS personnel, the Royal
Engineers, CarillionAmey (Regional
Prime Contractor) and Middlemarch Ltd.
Steve Edwards
Sustainability Development Offcer
DM Kineton
Sanctuary 44 • 2015
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