Hanson help safeguard protected species

Water voles and ospreys among wildlife being safeguarded across the company’s sites

WATER voles and ospreys are among the protected species that Hanson have helped safeguard recently as part of their commitment to the environment and enhancing biodiversity across their sites.

Water voles at Needingworth Quarry, in Cambridgeshire, which had spread into an extension area of farmland due to be available for extraction, have been safely translocated. In an extensive operation, the protected rodents were captured and moved to other parts of the site’s wetlands reserve by ecologists, which was a first for the quarry.

‘We employed contractors to fence off the Fenland waterways in the area and ecologists began to humanely capture and translocate the rodents to other parts of the reserve where there are no water voles,’ said unit manager Hilton Law, who led the operation.

‘We are aware of our ecological responsibilities to all wildlife, especially protected species, and have previously mitigated against endangering badgers, sand martins and bats, but this was a first for water voles.’

Hanson say a camera has also been refitted to an artificial nest near the company’s Ketton cement plant, in Rutland, which has been used by a breeding pair of ospreys. The wireless device, triggered by movement, captured several pictures of the protected fish-eating birds of prey, which are expected to return again.

‘It’s a good way of keeping track of the nest’s use and we are hoping the same pair will come back to breed,’ said Lloyd Park of the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust, who monitors the nest.