IT has more than 1,000 species of flora and fauna living in its grassland, scrub and ponds, many of them endangered species. It also has the highest level of habitat protection in Europe and is a past award-winner of a national wildlife competition.

But what makes Greenabella Marsh remarkable is that it lies within metres of one of the largest chemical plants on Teesside, the Huntsman Tioxide operation at Greatham, two miles south of Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool.

The team of workers looking after the marsh is hoping it can win the national British Trust for Ornithology's Challenge to Business prize, which takes place every two years.

The Greatham Works is a past winner of its category in the competition, which recognises the diversity of wildlife on industrial sites by recording bird species.

Team members are compiling records for this year's closing date at the end of December and have high hopes of success, having already reached 111.

The work is co-ordinated by Tony Marron, safety advisor for AK Engineering Services, which carries out maintenance at the complex.

Since 1988, when the project began, he and a team of volunteers have carried out projects including creating ponds, planting reedbeds and putting up nestboxes.

The team has also encouraged community visits, many of them from schools, to explain the importance of the 220-acre site, which stretches from the Seal Sands/Seaton Carew road to the Tees estuary sea wall.

Team members have recently been awarded £42,000 of landfill tax credit money to further their work.

Mr Marron acknowledges that the chemical industry still has a poor reputation in some quarters when it comes to protecting habitats, but argues that the wildlife on the site testifies to its health.

He said: "Obviously, Greenabella Marsh was here before the chemical plant, but industrial sites are often good for wildlife because they are protected.

"Take the Greatham site: behind the plant is a large expanse of marshland which is untouched. It is fenced off so no people can get on - access is through the plant only - and we allow it to develop naturally.

"People associate industry with dirt and pollution. What we do is take people out on to the site and say: 'This species is here, this species is here, you make your mind up'.

"At the last count, we had more than 1,000 species on the site. Some of them, including flowers, grasses and birds, were firsts for this area - that speaks for itself."

The list includes:

* 198 species of bird recorded since 1988, including red-backed shrike, peregrine falcon, little and common tern, great knot, stone curlew and marsh harrier. Eighty-one species were spotted in only six hours during a sponsored birdwatch in May to raise funds for Tees Valley Wildlife Trust and Teesmouth Bird Club;

* 30 species of moth;

* 15 butterfly species, including orange tip;

* Eight types of dragonfly and damsel fly;

* Mammals, including water vole, roe deer, fox, stoat and weasel;

* 5,000 orchids, including northern marsh, common spotted and pyramidal. Greenabella provided the first sighting of pyramidal orchids in the Tees Valley six years ago;

* Amphibians including smooth newt, frogs and toads.

THE BTO Challenge has been running for a decade.

Between 80 and 90 businesses from across the UK enter each year, ranging from quarries and reservoirs to chemical sites and manufacturing factories.

British Steel, Teesside, won the overall prize in the first competition in 1994, and since then Rutland Water has won.

When the challenge was staged two years ago, Huntsman Tioxide won the commerce section with 152 species, the best year recorded at the site.

Published: 20/07/2004