Volunteering on the Downs

I've just become a signed up member of the South Downs Volunteer Rangers, having just spent my 'taster' day out on the Downs. I knew I'd enjoy it, I've been volunteering off and on for a while and more recently with the Sussex Wildlife Trust at Lewes as mentioned previously in this blog.

It was the best fun I've had in ages. A full-on day, blooming hard work and I arrived back home very tired, covered in scratches and smelling of smoke but it's that good physical exhaustion, not the mental exhaustion you get from spending all day in front of the computer and certainly a great stress-reliever.

There were five of us scrub bashing just below the Devil's Dyke. Opening up a small glade at the foot of the Down's to encourage the cattle to come down into that area.

As we arrived at the site, we got a potted history of where we going to be working. Who owned it, what they grazed - cattle or sheep, where the boundary is and what we were hoping to achieve.

Although there were only five of us - including Mark, who was leading the group and in charge of the chainsaw, we did a sterling job, managing to clear a sizeable area and cutting down several large hawthorns, ground elder, brambles as thick as my wrist, still covered in blackberries (must take something to put them in next time) and then burning it all in a huge pile which covered everything, including us in ash.

There are working parties that go out three days in the week and also at the weekends. Knowing how quickly scrub takes over it's easy to see how important it is to keep areas cleared to encourage the chalk downland habitat - the flowers and insects that quickly disappear when the brambles and hawthorn take over.