Lafarge quarry wins wildlife award

Dry Rigg Quarry picks up Community Award in BTO–EDF Energy Business Bird Challenge

INTERACTIVE school visits and a dedicated education centre have helped Lafarge Aggregates & Concrete UK’s Dry Rigg Quarry earn a top honour in a major biennial wildlife competition.

The site, near Settle, North Yorkshire, picked up the Community Award for the Dry Quarry class (less than 5ha of water) in the British Trust for Ornithology EDF Energy Business Bird Challenge 2010.

Judges applauded the Dry Rigg site saying it ‘excelled’ in community work. Activities which particularly caught their attention were the refurbishment of old quarry buildings to create an education centre and a link-up with nearby Settle Middle School to help design floating nesting platforms for terns.

Competition organizer Kate Aldridge said: ‘Lafarge’s Dry Rigg Quarry did some fantastic work enthusing visiting students about the wildlife that is encouraged on site. The final total for educational visits was 447 – truly impressive for a small working quarry.’

Mick Lambert, quarry manager at Dry Rigg, said: ‘It’s fantastic news for everyone connected with the quarry that we’ve won this award. It’s the culmination of several years work really, as we’ve had steadily increasing amounts of visitors from all over the country, and now we have the redeveloped education centre hopefully this year we’ll see even more.

’

Assistant quarry manager Mik Cardus added: ‘Working with local schools is especially satisfying. The students seem to really enjoy learning how a modern quarry operates while being sensitive to local wildlife. It also gives the students first-hand experience of an important local industry and all the opportunities it offers.’