October 2010

“Snappy Fish Tales & Mountain Air"

QPANI Environmental Excursion

This year QPANI decided to revive the annual Environmental Conference agenda and take members away from a formal setting, but most of all, to witness achievement on the ground on areas such as biodiversity, environmental protection, planning and look closer at the future of renewable energy. The excursion event brought together quarry staff, quarry agents, mineral planners and guests from Proskills, Queens University’s Centre for Archaeology Fieldwork and the environmental reporter from the Belfast Telegraph.

Our excursion set off from the Glenavon Hotel, Cookstown after a hearty breakfast to visit the Ballinderry River Enhancement Association (BREA). Each year, BRAE’s Ballinderry Fish Hatchery Ltd, hatches around 1 million native brown trout, Dollaghan trout and Atlantic salmon, for the Ballinderry River and its tributaries, and carries out work to restore the health of the river by improving water quality and habitat. The Ballinderry River is one of only five rivers in Northern Ireland still home to a population of the globally endangered freshwater pearl mussel (Margaritifera margaritifera). Since 1996 freshwater pearl mussels have been bred in the hatchery and members were all fascinated learning about the symbiotic relationship between Dollaghan trout and the larvae of the pearl mussel that develop in the gills of the fish. A key message that QPANI members took away was the importance of protecting the freshwater environment and the damage that sediments can cause to waterways. QPANI members invest a lot of time and money on such protection measures and felt this was a very valuable morning for them.  

Next stop was to Acheson & Glover Group’s award winning Crayfish Sanctuary at Evishanoran Sand Pit near Pomeroy. This was a unique chance to see the endangered White-clawed crayfish and value the contributions our industry can make to biodiversity conservation. Mark Horton from BRAE had set traps in the lake and caught a number of crayfish so everybody had a closer look.

Lunchtime provided the opportunity to formally launch niquarryportal.com with our partners. This innovative website was produced by South West College’s InnoTech Centre supported by QPANI, Proskills and funded by the Department for Employment and Learning. In conjunction with this, South West College has developed a bespoke Sustainability Training Programme for the quarrying industry and will be offering a suite of training courses that with interest many companies.  

The afternoon visit led us into the Sperrin Mountains to visit Creagh Concrete Product’s pit close to Draperstown. Members heard about Creagh Concrete’s positive experiences in gaining swift planning permission for a northerly extension to Brackagh sand and gravel pit including restoration to a variety of habitats. The short application processing time was in part due to front loading of information with the application by having pre-application discussions with stakeholders.  Also at this site, Creagh Concrete has gained planning permission for wind turbines and members discovered how ‘Creagh Energy’ is taking a pro-active approach towards creating a sustainable future – this is a new section of their business alongside offering renewable energy technologies including; Bio Gas, Wind and Solar solutions for private, public, commercial and agricultural projects throughout Scotland and N Ireland.

ENDS 

NOTES TO EDITORS:

If you would like to know anything more about these projects or sites please contact Laverne Bell at QPANI. Email: LBell@qpani.org