Nosterfield celebrates another successful BioBlitz
Tarmac site ranked second in UK after recording a record number of species in national wildlife campaign
TARMAC’s Nosterfield Quarry and the Lower Ure Conservation Trust (LUCT) are celebrating after tracking a record number of species at the site as part of the national BioBlitz campaign. The event took place over 24 hours, with 50 sites taking part across the UK.
The term BioBlitz refers to an intense period of biological surveying in an attempt to record all the living species within a designated area, usually over a 24-hour period.
A total of 1,111 different species were recorded at Nosterfield, an increase of 386 species on last year’s total. This ranked the site second in the UK, narrowly missing out on first place.
This year the site team were joined by TV presenter Chris Packham who travelled around the country visiting nature reserves that were taking part in the campaign.
Mr Packham said: ‘Our wildlife needs us more now than ever so it’s important that we start to take responsibility and do something to protect them. It is great to see places like this, where the community is coming together with a common goal to do just that.’
Simon Warwick MBE, site director for LUCT, said: ‘We are very excited to have come second in the BioBlitz and to have seen such a huge increase in the number of species from last year.
‘It was great that Chris chose to include Nosterfield in his tour, highlighting the work of dedicated teams of volunteers and how working in partnership with organizations such as Tarmac can really benefit wildlife. We are very grateful to all of the volunteers and naturalists that came to help out on the day.’
Chris Pennock, assistant manager at Tarmac’s Nosterfield site, added: ‘We are proud to partner with the Lower Ure Conservation Trust and offer our education centre as base camp for the BioBlitz. It was an excellent day that really highlighted the work that we’ve done together to restore quarried land for the benefit of nature.’
One of the successes of the event was the overnight setting of moth traps, recording the highest number of moth species in a night in North Yorkshire.
The site at Nosterfield Nature Reserve has been restored by the LUCT over the last 20 years in partnership with Tarmac, as quarrying at the site was gradually completed.
