Dufferin Aggregates Acton Quarry

About the Program
CRH America's Dufferin Aggregates Action Quarry is a reclaimed mining site in Ontario, Canada. The area includes rocky habitat in wetlands created to mimic conditions in nearby habitats in line with local government's local watershed plan, Metamorphosis 2020. Extraction at the site has created approximately 5,650 meters of exposed cliff face. The rocks in both the wetland and adjacent grassland establishes places for amphibians and reptiles to bask, areas where turtles and dragonflies can perch and surfaces for moss to grow. In addition, the cliff faces provide nesting habitat for cliff swallows and peregrine falcons. In 2009, the team created two vegetated wetland bodies to create habitat for amphibians — in particular, the endangered Jefferson salamander and Jefferson-dependent unisexuals —  to offset climate impacts on wetlands.

Practices and Impacts

• The team expanded the wetland area by 0.11 acres in 2018 with the creation of a second pool. The new wetland features a more varied range of water depths to provide a variety of growing conditions for wetland plants. The team has placed stumps, logs and rock piles within and adjacent to the wetland to provide habitat features for small wetland-dependent wildlife species and provide cover and egg mass attachment sites for amphibians.
• Since the construction of the wetland areas, over 40 taxa of vascular plants have been observed in each pool, representing mostly native species. 
• Ten amphibian taxa have been documented breeding in the pools, including the Jefferson salamander and unisexual ambystoma. The two endangered taxa were first identified in Pool G during minnow trapping surveys completed in spring 2018. This is a positive contribution to the recovery of these endangered taxa in southern Ontario. Data is shared with Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and the Natural Heritage Information Centre as well as researchers at the University of Guelph. 
• The Quarry has implemented a community awareness and engagement program over the last 19 years, focusing on woodlands and tree planting, with an emphasis on the importance of native planting, pollinators and building insect hotels. 
• Pollinator areas on the property were seeded in fall 2022 and in the summer-fall of 2023, several native plants had bloomed and various pollinators were observed in the areas.