Tarmac Northern Ireland leads the field - naturally

Forget Bill Oddie. When it comes to wildlife in Northern Ireland's quarries, it's Laverne Bell from the Quarry Products Association in Northern Ireland (QPANI) who's the expert. So when leading quarrying company Tarmac sent their Northern Ireland employees on biodiversity briefing, who better to do the task than Laverne.

Laverne, biodiversity and geodiversity officer with QPANI presented biodiversity workshops at Craigantlet and Carn quarries recently. All Tarmac Northern Ireland employees attended the day-long sessions - the first of their kind in the company, underlining the emphasis Tarmac places on nurturing and protecting the natural environment around its quarries.

"The idea is to give everyone an understanding of the value of our quarries to wildlife," said Laverne. "Tarmac's quarries are home to a number of protected species such as red squirrels and peregrine falcons so it's important everyone knows not to disturb those species. We also want to promote understanding and implementation of good practice in protecting biodiversity in the quarries."

John Hewitt, foreman at Carn, thought the workshops were a great idea: "I learned a lot. Take sand martins for example - I now know to build up dust and sand in the quarry face in springtime to encourage the birds to make nests there."

And there's more good news for wildlife as Pat Lyons, general manager for Tarmac Northern Ireland explained: "At Craigantlet we're working towards installing feed boxes specifically for red squirrels. We'll also be planting a significant number of trees at the site, with particular emphasis on trees that encourage red squirrels. And at Carn we've set aside a consented extraction area where we've identified red squirrels and badgers too."

It all adds up to a great example for other companies, reckons Laverne. "By setting out biodiversity management plans and targets and getting the workforce involved, Tarmac is showing good leadership in the sector. Local species should really benefit."

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20 February 2009