A BIG thank you to our volunteers
This week we had our summer thank you day for Steart Marshes volunteers, in recognition of all the skills and many hours of hard work they bring to the team.
After meeting at Steart for car-sharing, we all headed over to Stowey Woods for a walk led by our volunteer Roy. He explained the conservation work taking place there to remove conifer plantation and replace it with native species.
We could clearly see the new growth starting to flourish at ground level in areas where the conifers had been cleared. It was interesting to explore the woodland and appreciate the differences in species compared to the wetland environment we know so well.
However, it also reiterated the importance of wetlands in all types of habitats. Roy explained that there are plans for undertaking some natural flood management with the creation of leaky dams, creating some meanders in the existing stream and building up some of the banks. This will slow up flows, reduce the flood risk and soil erosion, and create more valuable wetland habitat.
After stretching our legs on our woodland walk, we exercised the grey matter with a Steart Marshes related quiz. This was an opportunity to share and refresh knowledge about the reserve and peninsula, with questions ranging from the great flood of 1607 to the number of hairs on an otter (up to 170,000 per cm2 on a Californian sea otter in case you were wondering!)
We finished the day with a magnificent afternoon tea at The Babbling Brook in Shurton.
A big thank you to all of our amazing volunteers who work so hard for us in their spare time – we really couldn’t do it without you!
