Restoration of wildlife habitats on Portland has received a funding boost from the Island’s famed stone industry. Albion Stone has donated £8000 towards Dorset Wildlife Trust’s Portland’s Living Landscape Project to help restore the rare grassland for wildlife.
Disused quarries across the island are home to exceptional wildlife but these havens are under threat. Fast-growing cotoneaster is one of the invaders smothering rare native plants and lichens and threatening the survival of endangered butterflies and moths, includinga unique chalk grassland form of the silver studded blue butterfly, which lives nowhere else in the world. Dorset Wildlife Trust’s‘Portland’s Living Landscape’ project, launched last year, is currently restoring up to 200 hectares of internationally important limestone grassland by removing the invaders. Theproject is a partnership initiative funded by a commemorative grant from Viridor Credits Environmental Company and supported by the Court Leet of the Royal Manor of Portland, Portland Bird Observatory, Plantlife, Butterfly Conservation and Natural England.
Sam Hamer, Portland’s Living Landscape Project Officer at Dorset Wildlife Trust, said: “Now that the work of this Project is in full swing, the continued support from local residents and businesses like Albion Stone is enabling us to protect these fragile habitats for the future”.
Michael Poultney the Managing Director at Albion Stone, said: “the company are delighted to be supporting this valuable project that sits alongside our own restoration plans for the exhausted quarries, with of course mining stone being the future for the industry with its limited impact on the environment”.
Dorset Wildlife Trust is looking for local volunteers to join conservation work parties in Portland’s quarries. Contact Sam Hamer on 07824 874272 or [email protected] or visit www.dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/flythroughcamera to find out more about Portland’s Living Landscape.
Dorset Wildlife Trust is part of the Natural Weymouth and Portland Partnership; connecting people with nature.
