Product category:
Roofing
News Release from: Marley Eternit | Subject: Biodiversity Action Plan
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 06 July 2004
Eternit Teams Up With Schoolchildren To
Help Newts
After publication of a pioneering Biodiversity Action Plan, Eternit Building Materials has begun work at its clay tiles factory, creating wildlife ponds to safeguard the protected Great Crested Newt.
The company had originally planned one large pond near a stream on its site in Madeley Heath near Keele in Staffordshire, and under the Countryside Stewardship Scheme, involved children from the Meadows Primary School in its design Investigations then revealed the Newts would be better served by three smaller ponds further away from the stream, and the company has now been granted planning permission and a licence from the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs Digging the three ponds and building an access gate and observation platforms for the schoolchildren to monitor wildlife is expected to take several weeks
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 22 Jul 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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Humane traps to capture the Newts in their current habitat also have to be laid for a minimum of 35 days.
The project is being overseen by Eternit's health, safety and project manager Peter Tomlinson who has helped the company win ISO 14001, the international standard for Environmental Management Systems.
In his thesis for a MSc in Environmental Management for Business, Peter devised a method for identifying and evaluating wildlife species.
To value the species and habitats throughout the site, he developed a bespoke scoring system - a Biodiversity Asset Register - to take account of their rarity and relative importance, and to compare Eternit's biodiversity performance over time.
"Having identified the habitats and species present on company-owned land it soon became apparent that Eternit has an important stewardship role to fulfil and moving the Newts is one of our first tasks," said Peter.
All the local primary schoolchildren who took part in the design project were awarded Eternit radios, and the two winners in the age groups four to six and seven to 11 each won £25 WHSmith vouchers.
Peter will present his Biodiversity Asset Register to a business and biodiversity conference attended by Prof David Bellamy and organised by the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust on October 19th at JCB's headquarters in Rocester. Request a free brochure from Marley Eternit ...
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