Nature Trust (Malta) said it was concerned about the fate of garigue habitats in the Maltese islands.
It said that recently the owners of a site of pristine garigue at Bahrija used a bulldozer to build a trapping hide.
NT said the Malta Environment and Planning Authority took immediate action and stopped the offenders and forced them to wash out with water all thyme and garigue vegetation smothered with dust and building debris.
Although this process should help out the wild thyme and other plants, some of the damage done was irreversible.
NT said it was illegal to uproot wild thyme specimens.