Tarmac and Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust (YDMT) have kick-started their ‘People and the Planet’ initiative with a woodland maintenance day in Stainforth.
A small group of volunteers removed hundreds of redundant tree tubes from Bargh Wood for recycling and completed other tasks such as weeding and tree guard straightening.
The session was part of Tarmac’s commitment to complete 7,700 hours of volunteering over the next ten years with the Clapham-based charity. The commitment supports Tarmac’s sustainability strategy to support environmental stewardship and community involvement.
Leah Galloway, development officer at YDMT said: “It was great to be able to finally start the partnership with a safe activity outdoors that would make a big difference to our local environment.
“Together, we removed more than 1,000 tree tubes from the wood, reducing plastic pollution, and helped to ensure the planting we’d undertaken during the winter could continue to grow.
“The group were really interested in the dynamics of the woodland and our recent planting there, as well as our work in the planting of 1.5 million trees since 1996.”
Steve Barker, area director at Tarmac. added: “We’re delighted to have finally been able to kick-off the, Covid delayed, start to our new 10-year partnership with YDMT, getting boots on the ground and making a difference in the community where we operate.
“This will be the first of many days of Tarmac volunteering which will provide our employees with an opportunity to make a real difference, helping to improve and maintain the environment in and around the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
“Tarmac is proud to be able to be able to support the communities in which we operate and we see the new People and Planet partnership with the YDMT as a clear opportunity to further build on community work we already support in the National Park.”
YDMT and Tarmac will be undertaking more volunteering sessions over the coming months, including tree planting and other woodland maintenance sessions.
In addition to the volunteering programme, Tarmac will also be providing YDMT with opportunities to organise visits to their sites through several “Rock to Road tours” throughout the year.
Image Credit: Tarmac employees enjoy a day volunteering with the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust
