Volunteer Activity – 12th February 2023

A great turnout of volunteers who carried out two main activities on Hell Wath: Pond Maintenance and Hedgerow Planting.

Pond Maintenance: Four volunteers donned waders and boots to clear leaf litter from the pond and to create a channel to allow the spring water to feed directly into the pond. Although the pond is small and will dry out in hot summers, it is an important wildlife habitat and will attract different insect and small mammal species – watch out for tadpoles in the Spring !

Hedgerow Planting: Volunteers, including several Venture Scouts helping to meet their carbon offset targets, planted out 450 hedgerow saplings along the boundary next to the Choir School development. The saplings were kindly donated by the Woodland Trust and were needed to replace whips which did not survive the drought conditions last summer. This new hedgerow will grow into a valuable wildlife habitat and help screen the housing development from Hell Wath.