party of volunteers with a roaring fire to burn it. As a thank you for their fantas‐ Ɵc help we will be holding a volunteer task day with Dot and Keith at the Nature Reserve on 3rd March 2015. On this task we will be cuƫng and clearing old Reed Fen veg‐ etaƟon to maintain this important habitat, stop it drying out and reverƟng to nowhere‐near‐as‐rare Willow woodland. If you’re interested, please book on the task as usual. ACTION for WILDLIFE! at The Anne Carpmael Charitable Trust con‐ serves wildlife in the local area and inspires others to do so by running events, courses, a Wildlife Club for children, publishing a monthly newsleƩer and also hosƟng a Forest School. The organisaƟon has no paid staff ‐ our fabulous volunteers are crucial! The Trust owns two nature reserves ‐ Withymead NR (largely wetland) and LiƩle Mead‐ ow reserve (wild flower meadow and naƟve tree thicket). Withymead has rare Reed Fen habitat, important for specialist species depend‐ ent on it ‐ OƩers, Water Rails, Desmoulins Snail, Reed and Sedge warblers plus notably also the larg‐ est remaining populaƟon of rare, naƟve, Loddon Lilies in the UK. Come and see thousands of Loddon Lilies in flower at our Sunday Open days in April and May ‐ cream teas available on the new river‐ side landing stage! ‐ DOT (Warden at WNR) Spring task INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Welcome and on task - Withymead Nature Re- serve 1 National Trails — Changes Afoot 2 Task Diary & Booking 3 Information Boards 4 Volunteer Feedback 4 The Anne Carpmael Charitable trust 1 NATIONAL TRAILS OFFICE Volunteer Update MARCH TO MAY 2015 ISSUE 11 DM White burning vegetaƟon Photo credit ACCT Email: [email protected]Araba and Trevor loading vegetaƟon This month we have been working in part‐ nership with Dot and Keith, wardens at Withymead Nature Reserve. One of our big problems on the Trails can be disposing of the vege‐ taƟon that we’ve cut down. This parƟcular sec‐ Ɵon near Goring was very tricky. Working in part‐ nership with Dot and Keith, Withymead Nature Reserve (WNR) wardens, and volunteers ‐ we could overcome this. NT volun‐ teers spent the Wednes‐ day clearing vegetaƟon, transporƟng the brash down to the WNR site ‐ where on the Saturday Withymead had a work Hello and welcome to the March to May 2015 Volunteer Task Diary! Before AŌer
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Volunteer Update - National Trail...ISSUE 11 Task Diary PAGE 3 The task locations are shown as numbers on the map so that you are able to see which locations suit you. Please ensure
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party of volunteers with a roaring fire to burn it. As a thank you for their fantas‐c help we will be holding
a volunteer task day with Dot and Keith at the Nature Reserve on 3rd March 2015. On this task we will be cu ng and clearing old Reed Fen veg‐eta on to maintain this important habitat, stop it drying out and rever ng to nowhere‐near‐as‐rare Willow woodland.
If you’re interested, please book on the task as usual.
ACTION for WILDLIFE! at The Anne Carpmael Charitable Trust con‐
serves wildlife in the local area and inspires others to do so by running events, courses, a Wildlife Club for children, publishing a monthly newsle er and also hos ng a Forest School. The organisa on has no paid staff ‐ our fabulous volunteers are crucial! The Trust owns two nature reserves ‐ Withymead NR (largely wetland) and Li le Mead‐ow reserve (wild flower meadow and na ve tree thicket).
Withymead has rare Reed Fen habitat, important for specialist species depend‐ent on it ‐ O ers, Water Rails, Desmoulins Snail, Reed and Sedge warblers plus notably also the larg‐est remaining popula on of rare, na ve, Loddon Lilies in the UK.
Come and see thousands of Loddon Lilies in flower at our Sunday Open days in April and May ‐ cream teas available on the new river‐side landing stage!
‐ DOT (Warden at WNR)
Spring task
I N S I D E
T H I S I S S U E :
Welcome
and on task -
Withymead
Nature Re-
serve
1
National
Trails —
Changes
Afoot
2
Task Diary &
Booking 3
Information
Boards 4
Volunteer
Feedback 4
The Anne
Carpmael
Charitable
trust
1
N A T I O N A L T R A I L S
O F F I C E Volunteer Update M A R C H T O M A Y 2 0 1 5 I S S U E 1 1
This month we have been working in part‐nership with Dot and Keith, wardens at Withymead Nature Reserve. One of our big problems on the Trails can be disposing of the vege‐ta on that we’ve cut down. This par cular sec‐on near Goring was very
tricky. Working in part‐nership with Dot and Keith, Withymead Nature Reserve (WNR) wardens, and volunteers ‐ we could overcome this. NT volun‐teers spent the Wednes‐day clearing vegeta on, transpor ng the brash down to the WNR site ‐ where on the Saturday Withymead had a work
Hello and welcome to the March to May 2015 Volunteer Task Diary!
Before
A er
P A G E 2
‘We are now at
the point of
implementing
the changes to
our structure,
and to the
managing and
delivery of the
trails that the
Review has
indicated.’
Implementing Changes
V O L U N T E E R U P D A T E
Hello,
Some of you may have been aware that during the past few years Na onal Trails (all 15 of them) have been undergoing a review process by Natural Eng‐land. Following on from the con‐sulta on reports based on Natural England’s New Deal for Na onal Trails, our trails are now subject to a set of revised quality stand‐ards which are underpinned by the following:
Experience – to enable as many people as possible to enjoy the trail. Enhancement –make constant improvements to the trail and its associated routes. Contribute to the enhancement of the land‐scape, nature and historic fea‐tures within the trail corridor. Engagement – build and sustain a community of interest in caring for the trail and the landscape through which it passes. Economy – to create opportuni‐es for local businesses to benefit
from the trail.
We are now at the point of imple‐men ng the changes to our struc‐ture, and to the managing and delivery of the trails that the Re‐view has indicated. In order to achieve our new objec ves whilst s ll maintaining our trails to their high standards, the exis ng man‐agement group are forming two separate Trail Partnerships ‐ one for The Thames Path including the London sec on and one for The Ridgeway. These partnerships will consist not only of the Highway
Authori es and the Environment Agency, but will include other interest‐ed organisa ons such as the two AONBs which The Ridgeway passes through – The North Wessex Downs and The Chiltern Conserva on Board.
As part of this process, there will be changes to the way we run the volun‐teer scheme and these will shortly take effect. Within the Chiltern area of The Ridgeway, we will be working in part‐nership with The Chiltern Society vol‐unteers, sharing volunteer reports and pooling resources.
We have also considered the trail mon‐itoring process and whilst some Na on‐al Trails monitor sec ons twice per year, The Thames Path and The Ridge‐way Trails have had monitors repor ng on their sec ons once a month. A er considera on, we have decided that sec ons and reaches should be moni‐tored every three months, as opposed to monthly. The issues volunteers need to report back on remain the same: vegeta on growth – up‐growth on the trail and encroaching side vegeta on; damage to furniture – bridges, gates and signs; erosion along the river banks; surface problems along the trails and an ‐social behaviour such as fly‐ pping that crops up from me to me.
Once again a huge thank you for all your me and effort in helping us to maintain our trails. Should you have any ques ons about the changes I’ve men oned then please do get in touch.
The task locations are shown as numbers on the map so that you are able to see which locations suit you. Please ensure that you book early as the practical tasks are becoming very popular. Occasionally we may have to change a task location or date as issues of a higher priority may occur or if the weather conditions are not suitable. If this happens, we will try to keep you as up-to-date as we can.
1st Wantage S (5) 8th Shiplake S (6) 9th Blowingstone GR (7) 14th Rushy Lock S (8) 15th Kings lock G (9) 16th Workshop (10) 21st TBC 22nd Shiplake G (6) 28th Chimney M (8) 29th Lechlade BC (11) 30th Grafton M (12)
MAY
6th Marlow BC (13) 7th Oxford (Fiddlers) BC (14) 12th Oxford (Osney) M (14) 13th Newbridge BC (15) 14th Kelmscot M (12) 19th Monkton Downs M (16) 20th Workshop (10) 26th Ashbury M (7) 27th TBC M 28th Kingston Lisle M (7)
11
12 10 8
14
6
3
9
4
1 5
16
13
15
2
Check
the map
for a
task
location
near to
you.
WS = Workshop G = Gate Installation S = Signage SW = Surface Works WC = Winter Clearance TBC = To be confirmed M = Mow BC = Brushcutting GR = Grip clearance
7
To book onto a task: Please contact the office by emailing: [email protected]
Installing New Signage at Streatley with Steve and Diane
Working out on the Trails
short me and give some‐thing back to the community. Thank you for your hospitali‐ty, the coffee and chocolate hob knobs too! — Sara
Just a quick few lines to let you know how much I really enjoyed our ci zenship day yesterday spent helping you out on The Ridgeway. Our team is s ll rela vely new, so not only was it a rewarding experience to put something back into the community, but it also helped us begin to bond much more as a team too ‐ meaning that the day was an overall success on 2
Thanks from us…. We’ve had regular corporate groups out on the Trails over the winter and recently a Na onwide corporate group came out with us on The Ridgeway near Ogbourne St George. A big ‘thank you’ to them for all their winter clear‐ance work, the installa on of one of our new Informa on Boards and a great day! — Sara
...and thanks from them: I really enjoyed our day yester‐day, I felt that we really made a difference just in one day. It was a great day for not just our own team building but to see such a difference we could make in a
levels and something I’d be more than happy to do it all again. — Peter
Had a great day all be it a li le cold. I thought the tools and or‐ganisa on of the day by yourself was great, was amazed at how much progress we made!! Thanks very much and hopefully we can do it again some me. — Gareth We all had a great me. It was really good for the team to work together and we all got a great sense of accomplishment at the end results.— Hazel
Calling all Monitors
Ridgeway: Our informa on boards along The Ridgeway need checking so if you have one on your sec on please tell us what condi‐on it is in.
Thames Path: Along the trail please let us know of any erosion issues you come across. All: If you’re running short of envelopes, report forms or bin bags—please email us—and thanks again for being our eyes and ears along the trails.
Thank you to all of our intrepid moni‐tors for informing us of issues along the Thames Path and The Ridgeway trails that need a en on.
There are 25 informa on boards along The Ridgeway and we are in the pro‐cess of replacing them. We’ve re‐placed 13 already but need to review the rest‐ so we are asking monitors along the Trail if they have an infor‐ma on board on their sec on to check its condi on and let us know what state its in. The Informa on Board at Ivinghoe Beacon has now been rein‐stated…..on an extremely windy day! ‐ Sara