The minerals industry has long placed great store in the effective restoration of its sites, as the 40 year history of the Mineral Products Association’s Restoration Awards Scheme will testify. In October the Mineral Products Association and Natural England launched their inaugural Biodiversity Awards at the Royal Society in London.

CEMEX UK, in partnership with the RSPB, was the first operator to win this new award, for its positive, large-scale heathland restoration work at Rugeley Quarry in Staffordshire. Placing the needs of biodiversity firmly at the centre of its plans to create rare, lowland heathland habitat at this site, the company hopes to support priority BAP species including nightjar, tree pipit, woodlark, great crested newt and adder.

via www.surfbirds.com

Good to see a story highlighting the positive work large commercial operations can achieve to promote biodiversity.

Bracken control expert and consultant Roderick Robinson says, “The situation is considerably better than it might be. UPL (United Phosphorus Ltd, manufacturers of asulam in India and suppliers of Asulox to the UK) have announced (via public written statements and their “bracken stakeholders group”’), that they intend to re-register Asulox for use on bracken in the UK.

“Whether UPL will succeed in this aim, will ultimately to be decided by the EU, and that remains to be seen. The compilation of a new registration dossier for Asulox will take until around 2017/18.”

It appears – and this is hugely important to all landowners and managers – that in the meantime all current stocks of Asulox must be sold by the end of this month and they need to be used by the end of next year.

via www.yorkshirepost.co.uk

Bracken is an important plant for many species, including adder. However, in some situations control of bracken can be important. Chemical control is more efficient and less destructive than mechanical clearance. The ban on sale of Asulox could therefore have far reaching consequences for reptile habitat management at some sites.

Animals may sense chemical changes in groundwater that occur when an earthquake is about to strike.

This, scientists say, could be the cause of bizarre earthquake-associated animal behaviour.

Researchers began to investigate these chemical effects after seeing a colony of toads abandon its pond in L'Aquila, Italy, in 2009 - days before a quake.

via www.bbc.co.uk

Fascinating observations. If I notice the toads rapidly leaving ponds during next year's field season I will be heading to open ground!

The drought that has affected parts of England since June will last into next summer if there is insufficient winter rain, the Environment Agency has said.

via www.bbc.co.uk

Not what the newly created ponds at Allington need just now! It rained quite hard in Dunkirk last night, but we need a lot more. 

A military site at Lodge Hill near Chattenden has been earmarked for a major housing development. The wildlife groups will object to the outline planning application because of the threat to important wildlife.  The proposal will have a damaging impact on the immediate environment and the neighbouring wood, which is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest. For example, the site supports nationally important numbers of nightingales, a bird that has decreased by 60% in the past 15 years, as well as bats, lizards, grass snakes, adders, slow worms, newts, frogs, toads, badgers and rare insects.

via www.kentwildlifetrust.org.uk

Given yesterday's announcement by George Osborne, I will be following the planning process on this project very closely.

I'm guessing that there will now be a strong presumption in favour of development by the local planning authority. You might say that it was a very well timed application...

Conservation groups can complain about the potential environmental impacts of major schemes such as this as much as they like, but are their voices relevant any more? Is it time for conservation organisations to abandon the anti development fight and instead proactively engage with developers and planners to ensure that a desirable mitigation outcome is achieved?