Quarry Life 2018 Award winners announced

A team from the University of South Wales has won HeidelbergCement Group's Quarry Life Awards 2018 for its biodiversity project. The project investigated the value of translocating ancient woodland soils with quarried landscapes at Forest Wood quarry, Mid-Glamorgan, in Wales.

The winners picked up a prize of GBP4400 at the ceremony held at Hanson's former sand and gravel quarry at Middleton Hall, Tamworth. The winning team, led by Dr David Lee, senior lecturer in wildlife ecology, considered the benefits of moving woodland soils to other areas in the quarry to enhance ecological resilience and aid habitat regeneration post-extraction.

More than 300 research projects from 25 countries entered the competition. This is the fourth biennial Quarry Life Awards organised by HeidelbergCement group to raise the understanding of the biological value of mining sites both during and after extraction.

The second prize, of GBP2200 was awarded to Bath Spa University's project on wetland creation, carried out at Hanson’s Chipping Sodbury Quarry in south Gloucestershire.

The University of the West of England's project on the part limestone quarry habitats can play in protecting the endangered European eel, also carried out at Chipping Sodbury, received the runners-up, third-place award.