Our brilliant Broadwater volunteers have been busy all summer removing rabbit netting from the undergrowth around reserve. The wire netting was put in by foresters to protect the hundreds of acres of pine they were planting. But the price and value of pine dropped and the foresters lost interest in maintaining their plantations. They left behind a tangle of wire netting which stretches for hundreds of meters in all directions, posing a threat to wildlife and to visitors, and to people working on the reserve. Now the RSPB has taken on the land and the wire is being removed.
Removing these hundreds of metres of wire from such thick undergrowth would cost the RSPB thousands of pounds. We are so lucky to have a superb band of volunteers who do this for free, saving us money which can then be spent on further species conservation. What's more our volunteers do this hard work with a smile on their face.
They are amazing. I'm personally so grateful for all the hard work our volunteers contribute.
Steve (Broadwater Warren Reserve Manager)