Anglesey Aluminium Metal Ltd

You might wonder why a company involved in metal smelting would have such a keen interest in wildlife, but when you think of the fact that Anglesey Aluminium Metal Limited (AAM) is based near the port of Holyhead on the island of Anglesey, which has some of the most important wildlife sites and exciting wildlife projects in the UK, suddenly it all starts to make sense. Jointly owned by Rio Tinto and Kaiser Aluminium & Chemical Corporation, they are a major employer with 540 staff at the smelter. Most of the workers live in the Holyhead area, so local reputation and the local environment has always been of key importance to this company.

Along with the smelter site, they own over 200 hectares of the Coastal Park Reserve next door. The Reserve is a made up of a variety of habitats including wooded areas, farmland, coastal margins and mudflats which are home to an abundance of wildlife. It is part of the island's Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and a Site of Special Scientific Interest. It is a resource for strengthening community relations, building company morale, improving AAM's national profile and enhancing their corporate reputation for environmental commitment. To prove its commitment to delivering wildlife benefits, the company is working together with the Countryside Council for Wales and other partners to put together a Management Plan for the reserve. Commenting on their new membership of the Wildlife Partnerships programme, Stephen Roberts, Environmental Advisor for Anglesey Aluminium said: "Anglesey Aluminium has been a member of the North Wales Wildlife Trust for the past five years and once the reserve management plan has been completed, we hope our new partnership with Wildlife Trust Wales can evolve and expand significantly"

The following two projects that Wildlife Partner, Anglesey Aluminium are carrying out give a flavour of the kind of work that the responsible companies involved with our programme are undertaking and of the wildlife benefits that these are delivering on the ground.

Red Squirrel Introductory Programme To help with the Isle of Anglesey’s Red Squirrel Conservation Programme, Anglesey Aluminium started their own Red Squirrel Project in the Autumn of 2005. Their coastal reserve had all the required criteria for this to succeed: an ideal habitat; ample food supply, was quiet and secluded and no grey squirrels. Introductory pens were built and located in the reserve with the first four red squirrels introduced in October 2005. Two further additions took place in early 2006 and another four were added in October 2006. It is hoped that this group of red squirrels will now breed during 2007 and the population will be able to sustain and hopefully increase over the next few years. As part of the project, squirrel nest-boxes and feeding stations have been put up in various locations in the woods. This not only provides ample access to food and shelter, but also helps the site's ecologists to easily monitor the squirrels.
Local schools became involved when Anglesey Aluminium teamed up with the island's "Friends of the Anglesey’s Red Squirrels" Group and there is now a "Squirrel Talk & Walk" where kids visit the training centre and are given an educational talk about the red squirrels by an expert before being taken on a walk through the woods to try and spot one of these beautiful creatures.
	Bird-watch Events with Bird-Life International Bird-Life International have a global partnership with Rio Tinto to achieve their shared goals of biodiversity conservation and as part of these run Bird-watching events around the world. In the summer of 2006, Anglesey Aluminium held their first Bird-watching event on the island. This involved the North Wales Wildlife Trust, local schoolchildren and keen bird-watchers, Anglesey Aluminium staff, the RSPB and the Countryside Council for Wales. Five groups visited various areas around the island to try and spot as many different species as possible. At the final count, a massive 93 species had been clearly identified!

This was followed by a winter event in January 2007. Although the wind was fairly strong, the rain stayed away and eighty-nine different species of bird were sighted at the various sites, which included Beddmanach Bay, Cemlyn, and Malltraeth. The high-lights were 8 Great Northern Divers in the Beddmanarch / Inland Sea area, Slovenian Grebes sighted of Penrhos Park, Black Throated Divers and Black Guillemots in Holyhead Harbour, a Purple Sandpiper at Cemlyn and a close-up view of Pintails and Godwits at Malltraeth. At the end of the day everyone gathered in the Treaddur Bay Hotel for well earned refreshments and the presentation of the Wildlife Partnership certificate.

Work is currently underway to put up a large number of nest boxes in the reserve and in the Spring of 2007, local school kids will visit and try to find the boxes and identify which species have nested in them. This will once again help engage and educate young people with the work that is being done in the park and compliment the Bird-watch Events.