Ford & Stanley has teamed up with customers and partners to create a stunning wildlife conservation area and eco-island to provide for species of bird and native British pond plants.
Following the construction of a conservation lake, the Derby-based talent services company teamed up with partners including Caf Rail UK, Loram UK and Derbyshire Oaks to clear the area over several months of debris, plastic bottles and other reusable items.
The Conservation and Wellbeing Meadow, sponsored by The Ford & Stanley Group, was launched last week and now is home to wellbeing projects supported by the company as well as providing a home for wildlife to thrive.
Peter Schofield, Ford & Stanley Chairman, said he was delighted as much by the enthusiasm and endeavour of everyone involved as he was by the outcome.
He said: “As a business we don’t just talk environment but actually do things that make a tangible, positive long-term impact, but this is achieved exclusively by people being genuinely environmentally passionate and being willing to give up their own down-time to support projects such as this. He said, adding
“It might sound strange, but seeing our team being creative, clever and active in favour of the environment gives me added confidence that the future of the business is in good hands”.
Kimberly Sweet-Roberts, from CAF Rollingstock UK, said: “We take pride working with a partner whose environmental passions, drivers and missions align to our own. This is testament to the organisation’s ethos to be the change you want to see”
Over the last few months, teams of volunteers have cleared away items such as bottles, unwanted plastic piping and cargo netting, which were then re-purposed into a structure to support the weight of the matting in the pond that provided the substrate into which a variety of native British pond plants were planted at the site near Duffield, Derbyshire.
Species such as Pond Sedge, Soft Rush, Purple and Yellow Loosestrife, Yellow Flag Iris and Reed Canary Grass mean that the floating wetland can provide four environmental benefits:
- Safe roosting and nesting habitat for a variety of waterfowl
- Absorb excess nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen from the water thereby reducing life-suffocating algae
- Protective underwater breeding and feeding environments for fish and additional riparian area for reptiles
- Food source for essential pollinators and insects such as honey bees, wasps, bats, birds, dragonflies and butterflies.
