New newt homes!!

If you've been up to the leisure centre recently you could be wondering why they are digging another swimming pool around the back of the high school grounds. It's actually a swimming pool for newts!

Penlan ponds, situated in the grounds of Brecon leisure centre, provide an important breeding habitat for the great crested newt in south Powys. The great crested newt is the largest of the three native newt species and can grow to about 16cm. In the breeding season, the male has a large conspicuous crest that is tall and jagged on the back with a gap at the base of the tail. This crest and its size also allow us to distinguish between the great crested newt and the more common smooth newt. Another distinctive mark is the characteristic white flash on the centre of the male's tail. The great crested newt's skin is a very dark colour with mottled black markings; however the belly is a distinctive orange with black spots.

Great crested newts are one of only three species of newts native to Britain and although relatively widespread are at risk from a decline in numbers. This decline is thought to be because of the loss of suitable breeding ponds caused by the water table reduction, in-filling for development, farming, waste disposal, neglect or fish stocking and the degradation, loss and fragmentation of terrestrial habitats.

The Penlan Ponds therefore are key great crested newt habitat within Breconshire, and are also home to five of Wales's six native amphibian species; common frogs, common toads, palmate newts, smooth newts and of course great crested newts

Powys County Council monitors the ponds each year and in 2003 a fourth pond was built, however the pond proved unable to hold water the whole year round. In 2006 The Brecknock Wildlife Trust in partnership with Powys County Council, the Countryside Council for Wales and the Environment Agency, with support from the Brecon Beacons National Park, completed a project to improve both the new pond and its surrounding habitat.

Great crested newts and their habitat are legally protected so a special licence was required to carry out the conservation work. A new pond liner was put in place to hold the water, which was then covered with a layer of top soil to give a natural look and encourage the growth of aquatic plants. A mixture of locally grown hawthorn, blackthorn and hazel shrubs were also planted to provide newts with scrub cover in the spring.

In time hopefully the newts will adopt this new pond as another breeding pool along with the other species of amphibians that inhabit Penlan. Further monitoring will be carried out to insure that the newts are thriving in their new home and that their disturbance is kept to a minimum.