As today is International Volunteer Day, we wanted to say a huge Thank You to all of you who have helped the Carbon Landscape Partnership these past few years. You have helped us immeasurably with your magnificent deeds, no matter how big or how small!
Our Volunteer Co-ordinator, Steve Ormerod, also wanted to give a brief rundown of everything that we have achieved with the help of our volunteers over this past year!
‘The past twenty months have been incredibly strange – in and out of lockdown, unable to have volunteers, only being able to have a few volunteers and now finally we’re able to have larger work parties, yet we’re still not out of the Covid-19 woods. So I’m squeezing a few extra months into my roundup to make up for it.
We’ve done all kinds of conservation work together: -
• Woodland work – clearing trees at Maypole Wood
• Grassland Conservation – removing scrub from Whitehead Hall Meadow
• Wetland and Fen – Fen cuts with the Wigan Flashes Team
• Peat Bog conservation – removing Rosebay Willowherb from New Moss Wood
• Interpretation and signage installation at both Three Sisters and at Woolston Park
• Hedge Laying – this year we’ve concentrated on Whitehead Hall Meadow and Moss Brook Farm
• Tree Planting at Whitehead Hall
• Surveying with Citizen Science
• Event work at Wet Lab (which was perhaps a little too wet!)
We’ve also continued our training! This was a fantastic opportunity, for me anyway, to keep in touch with you all with our Monday night Zooms, where we had workshops on Pond Life, Fungi, Wetland Bird Surveying, how to Run Events, how to Lead Groups, Woodland Conservation, Grassland Conservation, Peatland Conservation, Wetland Conservation, Wildlife of the Mersey Corridor, Wildlife of the Mosslands, Tree Pruning and Grafting, scything (which was really cool doing on line!) and so many others.
For me, the highlight of this year has to be getting to see so many of you again, particularly after the hard isolation of lockdown. Speaking project wise, however, it’s probably the fact that thanks to all of your hard work, we’ve hit targets for Carbon Skills, Carbon Volunteers, Carbon Restoration, Carbon Connections as well as established a firm legacy for the Carbon Landscape. We’ve trained and supported our network of Landscape Champions, as well as expanded it recently in light of the National Nature Reserve work we’ve been doing.
There’s also been some fantastic success stories, with some of our volunteers achieving work in the sector, as well as projects being completed successfully such as Woolston Park Rubbing Trail, Three Sisters All Access Trail, Whitehead Hall Meadow Restoration and Access Project.
Our work is not done! We’re still working on projects, such as Whitehead Hall Meadow, Maypole Wood and other events. There are still many opportunities with our partner teams, such as on the Wigan Flashes and Bickershaw.’
So Thank You again to all our intrepid volunteers! You have braved the elements, sacrificed your time and lent us your strength, skill and humour
