Colleagues at UM Terminals’ Portbury facility have been busy transforming a green space within the site.
The half-acre plot already boasted three cherry trees and a small pond, but a team including operator David “Titchmarsh” Richards and site supervisor Tom Rowe have been busy planting hundreds of additional trees. The pair were joined earlier this month for the day by Dr Nigel Jones, UM Group's Sustainability, Quality & Technical Manager, and UM administrator Louisa Brown.
The initiative followed a series of Green Days last year at UM Terminals’ sites in Liverpool, Hull and Portbury, although the latter is unique in having its own green oasis, something that is highly unusual at UK ports.
As part of the Green Days campaign, Louisa reached out to the Woodland Trust, which has since provided the company with hundreds of trees and plants including Spanish Broom, Common Dogwood, European Mountain Ash, Common Hawthorn, Sea-buckthorn and Wild Cowslip flowers.
Meanwhile, the Richard Davis Memorial Pond, named in memory of the former Portbury site controller who died last year and was responsible for planting the cherry trees 30 years ago, is also going from strength to strength.
The pond now contains lily pads, spiral rushes and oxygen weed, as well as half a dozen fish, while the water is kept circulating by a solar powered oxygen pump.
There is also a much-loved vegetable plot, tended by David Richards, which so far boasts strawberry plants, onions, lettuce, tomatoes and chilli peppers.
