What’s new?
8 January 2008
Sun shines on winter volunteer celebration!
A chance to enjoy the countryside and highlight how volunteers help to enhance it
In the middle of December The Wildlife Trust celebrated the success of its ‘Valley Volunteers’ project with a morning guided walk, mince pies and mulled wine at Ring Haw Field Station at Old Sulehay Nature Reserve.
Wildlife Trust staff and many dedicated volunteers were joined by Dr Ian Williamson from Natural England’s Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund Grants Management Team (ALSF), which is funding the Valley Volunteer Project.
The weather held and all enjoyed a walk in the sunshine, taking in the sights and sounds, from the cry of a buzzard circling overhead to the stunning spectacle of a spindle tree in full fruit. As part of the tour, Trust staff gave talks on the management of reserves along the Nene valley, the Trust’s Vision for the Valley and the history of the Old Sulehay Reserve.
Dr Ian Williamson from ALSF said "The Valley Volunteers Project is the only current ALSF project specifically targeted at conservation volunteers and due to the dedication of Wildlife Trust staff and volunteers alike, continues to be a major success story. This can only bode well for the future management of nature in the Nene Valley. The event held at Old Sulehay was a great opportunity for me to meet many of those involvedand also enjoy a grand day out in the winter sunshine.”
Closing the morning’s event Brain Eversham, conservation director for the Trust added "The event was a powerful demonstration of how crucial volunteers are to the work and the future of the Wildlife Trust. Faced with climate change and massive housing and industrial growth, we need to manage our nature reserves even better and volunteers are a key to that. And more than ever, we need to monitor the effectiveness of all that we do, and to track the changes in local wildlife brought about by climate change. Our Ecology Groups are a future face of the unrivalled 300-year tradition of British natural history."
A wide variety of roles are available to potential volunteers. There are opportunities for people across the three counties, at all levels of knowledge and skill, and for people who want to volunteer full time or just one day a month. Volunteering enable people to get closer to their local wildlife, make new friends, and learn new skills.
The Valley Volunteers project aims to engage local communities to take action for important wetland habitats in the Nene Valley, and to update our scientific knowledge of the condition of wetland habitats. Local people will be encouraged to take action for wildlife through introductory events, training workshops, survey and monitoring work, and conservation management tasks on nature reserves that have been affected by quarrying.
If you would like to find out more about the volunteer opportunities near you please contact Rosie Blackman, Nene Valley volunteer development officer on 01954 713535 or ecologygroups (at) wildlifebcnp.org