Saturday saw the first (of hopefully many) “Conservation Volunteer’s Work Days”, when a small, but determined, team of enthusiastic volunteers came together to begin the project to improve our beautiful rights of way. This inaugural event saw the aim being to make the 200 metre stretch of public pathway adjacent to Crownfields to the Recreation park more accessible, especially for people who may have mobility issues, or for people with buggies and prams etc. Two hours of careful chopping, pruning and trimming – taking care to respect possible nesting habitat – saw enormous improvement to accessibility through the entire length of the path, which was almost inaccessible in some places, and the production of 12 bags worth of waste.
Despite some parts of the path still being a bit slippy due to mulch (clearing that will be the next part of the task), hopefully people will see the improvements and benefits to this historically tricky path – as Peter himself demonstrated.
Going forward then, OPC intend to arrange a routine monthly Volunteer Work Day to continue to enhance our environment – as the name suggests, this is absolutely dependant on a volunteer workforce, so please, please consider putting your name down – it doesn’t have to be every event, and it is a great way to commune with nature, to meet new people and to assist making tangible improvements to our fantastic environment that we can all enjoy – Be a part of it! We’re looking at the 22 April for the next event.
Elsewhere, OPC are continuing to work with other brilliant organisations such as Hampshire Countryside Service and the local Rambler’s Association to improve other rights of way in the area, that require a bit more of a technical/expert solution – we will keep you posted. In the meantime then, many, many thanks to Laura, Mike, Peter, Tim, Julie, Emma and James for your enthusiasm, work and advice today – you’ve made our community better!
Come join us next time……
