Manchester Airport opens new public nature trail around Runway 2

Fri 28 Dec 2007 – The UK’s Manchester Airport has opened a new public nature trail that takes walkers through some of the 75 hectares of new woodlands and grasslands created as part of Runway 2, as well as 97 wildlife ponds, three bat barns and the new River Bolin tunnel.
 
The airport says the scheme is part of an extensive environmental project undertaken as part of the development work and represents a “significant milestone” since the opening of Runway 2 in 2001.
 
The trail circles the whole of Runway 2 and offers ramblers two different lengths of walk. It passes the site of a former Bronze Age farm discovered during excavation work for the building of the runway and a newly installed willow sculpture of Concorde, which was commissioned by the airport to mark the opening of the trail.
 
“We have worked extremely hard on the environment around Runway 2, restoring and building new ponds for our wildlife, creating new areas of woodland and grassland, and building three new barns for bats,” said Tim Walmsley, the airport’s Environment Manager. “The new trail will allow people to walk all the way around Runway 2 and see many of these new landscape features as well as get some incredible views of aircraft and the airport.
 
“We are particularly pleased with the willow sculpture of Concorde at the start of the trail, which we commissioned from the Littoral Arts Trust, an arts and environmental education based in Rossendale, Lancashire. It’s a really fantastic piece of work, which is about a third of the size of the real thing and has already proved to be popular with visitors to the Aviation Viewing Park.”
 
Manchester Airport recently published a Master Plan which outlines a commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2015 for its energy and vehicle use.
 
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