Clear Creek Quarry

About the Program
Clear Creek Quarry is a construction materials company (offering sand, gravel and crushed stone) operated by Vulcan Materials. It is located in Charlotte, North Carolina, just due east of the city center and just north of the South Carolina border. This quarry consists of 15 acres of grassland habitat, 220 acres of forest and just under an acre of landscaped habitat. With the addition of a pollinator garden and 16 nest boxes, the site attracts a variety of pollinator species and native avian species.

Practices and Impacts

• The nesting boxes are located throughout the site: two in the forested area, four in the landscaped area and ten in the grasslands. These boxes are checked weekly and cleaned annually to ensure nesting success of a variety of native avian species. These boxes proved successful the past two years with 20 eastern bluebirds and 31 Carolina chickadees hatchlings. 
• The pollinator garden started back in 2002 with new plants and basking rocks added in recent years. This garden has attracted a variety of native pollinator species such as the monarch butterfly, eastern tiger swallowtail, gulf fritillary and common eastern bumblebee.