Tarmac celebrate National Wildlife Day

Company demonstrates commitment to restoration and conservation with insect discovery event at Ladds Farm

TO celebrate National Wildlife Day, Tarmac hosted a group of wildlife enthusiasts at their Ladds Farm site in Kent, to encourage local people to get involved in a special Grasshopper and Bush Cricket Field Study Day.

The event took place in collaboration with several of Tarmac’s partners in the region, including the Kent Wildlife Trust. Volunteers at the event found several rare species that have made the restored land their home.

Carl Jones, estate manager at Tarmac, said: ‘Working closely with Kent Wildlife Trust to manage the restored chalk grassland has been an extremely rewarding experience, particularly as the project has been across the whole landscape of the site.

‘It’s great to be able to demonstrate our commitment to restoration and conservation.’

Tarmac’s land and natural resources team recently celebrated the milestone of restoring more than 952 acres of land in the past year, of which 420 acres were restored to priority habitat.

The company has numerous sites that have been restored from active quarries to wildlife and biodiversity sites, including Panshanger Park in Hertfordshire and Godmanchester in Cambridgeshire.

Last year, Tarmac received top honours at the Mineral Product Association (MPA) Restoration & Biodiversity Awards, winning the Cooper-Heyman cup alongside partners Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trust, in recognition of their work to sensitively manage the grade II* listed landscape at Panshanger.

The landscape has been restored to agriculture and nature conservation, with 500 of the estate’s 1,000 acres being opened to the public through the creation of a country park.

In addition to this win, Tarmac were also runners-up in the restoration category for their site at Cloddach, near Elgin, which has been restored to a mosaic of lakes, wetlands, islands and wet woodland and agriculture.