This is another guest blog from our Warden Jamie:
In Autumn and Winter the team of brilliant staff and volunteers of the wardening team are out on the reserve in the ditches, covered in mud cutting and managing the reedbeds.
Annual rotational cutting of a proportion of the 29 hectares of reedbed is both vital for the health of this habitat, and a requirement of our higher level stewardship (HLS) agreement with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
We cut the reed with brush cutters and then remove the cuttings (Paul did a blog recently about this if you wanted to read more). Rainham is a big site and we need a hand! If you have a Thursday free we would love your help!
Reedbed clearance events: Thursday 14 November and Thursday 21 November: 10am – 1pm Each year we have to cut a proportion of the 29 hectares of reed bed across the reserve. This helps preserve and improve the habitat, but also ensures we comply with conditions of the agri-environment scheme we have signed up to. As part of this scheme we must also remove as much of the cut reed as possible, and this is where we need your help. We remove the reed by raking and transferring into builders sacks. If you would like the opportunity to get down off the visitor trail and into a reed bed then it would be great if you could make one, or both of the upcoming events. The work is suitable for all levels of fitness, as even just holding the bags open to help fill is a great help.
Please book in advance (by emailing rainham.marshes@rspb.org.uk, call 01708 899851, or chat to the person on reception), and give your boot size (hopefully we’ll have enough of all sizes this time!).