Teesside firm marks 10 years of helping wildlife at RSPB Saltholme

A nature reserve is celebrating a decade of support from a local chemical company by providing new homes for visiting birds from Africa.
The RSPB Saltholme team and SABIC representatives with the new swift birdboxes.The RSPB Saltholme team and SABIC representatives with the new swift birdboxes.
The RSPB Saltholme team and SABIC representatives with the new swift birdboxes.

RSPB Saltholme, near Billingham, has unveiled 10 swift bird boxes sponsored by one of its biggest corporate donors, SABIC.

Dotted around the reserve’s visitor centre, the boxes are ready to welcome the migrating birds from Africa which arrive from late April onwards.

A new information board for the swift birdboxes.A new information board for the swift birdboxes.
A new information board for the swift birdboxes.
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Saltholme site manager Chris Francis said: “It’s a special moment to be able to celebrate ten years of partnership with SABIC, which has given us the opportunity to deliver significant projects on the reserve, creating a habitat which has allowed nature to flourish in this uniquely industrial setting.

“The boxes will help provide these wonderful birds with a long-term UK home they can return to year after year.”

SABIC, which has sites at Wilton and North Tees, hassupported Saltholme in numerous ways over the last 10 years including through corporate membership, holding annual visits with school children, planting trees and contributing to the nearby £16million Greatham Creek Flood Defence project.

But Saltholme says its biggest contribution is to pump enough water to the reserve to fill 100 Olympic-sized swimming pools every year, saving Saltholme £80,000 a year and making it a home to a unique variety of birds and other wildlife including water voles and otters.

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Daren Smith, SABIC’s Teesside site director, said: “Environmental protection is one of the top priority areas for our Corporate and Social Responsibility (CSR) programme.

“It is wonderful that on Teesside we have developed long-standing relationships with our partners and stakeholders in this way, not just to protect but to significantly enhance the local environment in which we operate.”

Potential corporate partners should email [email protected].