Herts & Middlesex Wildlife Trust and Stanborough Park
Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust believe that wildlife should be able to thrive alongside our everyday lives and that everyone is better off when they have access to nature. They are a local conservation charity working to protect wildlife and help people connect with nature. With a team of volunteers they care for wild places so that nature has a place to thrive. They help people experience the wildlife on their doorsteps and to take action to protect it.
Stanborough Park have worked very closely with The Herts & Middlesex Wildlife Trust for several years, to maintain a healthy natural environment, within our nature reserve, for the vastly varied species of wildlife that have chosen to make their home at Stanborough.
In February, the Wildlife Trust organised a working party of nine volunteers to work on the maintenance and diversity of the reserve. They focused on two main tasks - re pollarding the willows on the East of the reserve and cutting and raking the reed bed to the South.
The reed bed is cut on rotation to prevent it from drying out and to create a diversity of reed density. This variation creates slightly different habitats and benefits the vast number organisms that call the reed bed their home.
Around the edge of the reed bed, willows were coppiced and pollarded (this is where trees are cut back periodically to stimulate growth) on rotation, creating a scrub ecotone providing a different habitat for bird and invertebrate species. The willow scrub provides an important roosting, breeding and feeding site for birds and invertebrates. Stanborough nature reserve has long been a haven for a great variety of animals and birds, thanks largely to the continued hard work and dedication of the Trust.
If you are interested in joining any of the work parties, either at Stanborough or any of the other local sites please visit: