Wildlife at British quarries

This video from Britain is about Great Crested Newts (Triturus cristatus).

From Wildlife Extra:

New project aims to give nature a home in quarries

A multi million pound project to turn quarries into wildlife havens has been hailed by conservationists as a vital lifeline for nature.

August 2013. Restore, a project financed by the EU’s Interreg IVB North West Europe fund, will see €3.3m spent on creating priority habitats, turning spent mineral extraction sites into reedbeds, meadows, woodlands, and heathland. The extra funding comes as a host of sites across the UK have recently recorded species bouncing back as a result of restoration work.

A variety of insects, crayfish, otters and bitterns are just some of the species which are thriving in newly-created habitats and the new funding means conservationists and the minerals industry can do even more for wildlife in the future. …

Conservation successes on quarry sites include the recording of a rare spider-eating wasp, identified for the first time in England at the LafargeTarmac Sandy Heath quarry in Bedfordshire.

Great crested newts

Numbers of breeding great crested newts are at record levels at ponds specifically created at Ryder Point quarry in Matlock, Derbyshire, worked by independent operator Longcliffe Quarries and member of the British Aggregates Association (BAA). Acknowledging this success, Peter Huxtable, BAA Secretary, said: “Our members are endeavouring to do their bit for nature. They recognize the great potential to create homes for nature on their sites.”

Ouse Fen

Ouse Fen in Cambridgeshire – a nature reserve being created from a Hanson quarry site – reported its first otter earlier this year and numbers of bitterns and marsh harriers are increasing on the reserve.

Kemerton Lake

At Kemerton Lake in Worcestershire, a former sand and gravel extraction site, native white-clawed crayfish have been reintroduced by Buglife, the Invertebrate Conservation Trust. More individuals are set to be released into the lake this summer to help the species which has been decimated by the influx of invasive American crayfish in our lakes and rivers.

This summer has also seen increased sightings of the threatened small blue and grizzled skipper butterflies at restored Cemex quarry sites in Warwickshire.

Germany: In 2013 BirdLife Europe initiated together with LBV a field study in and around the already rehabilitated quarry to evaluate the target species and habitats in order to draft a long term biodiversity management concept. The results are quite impressive. In and around the already rehabilitated quarry a total of 61 bird species, 47 butterfly species and 187 plant species were counted in the first survey. Based on these results and on the mappings that will take place in 2014, a long-term biodiversity management scheme will be proposed by LBV to be integrated by the cement plant in its on-going mining activities and future restoration plans which HeidelbergCement will implement: here.