Working for the Environment Agency has its benefits. Alongside our normal allocation of holiday, we get 2 special days a year to go and do something environmentally beneficial.
On Friday I had my first special day off. My team had organised to do some work with the River Stewardship Company
All but two of us gathered at work and went down to the site having hung around on what we thought was the correct bridge. We enjoyed the view.. and waited.. and waited.. looked at the pernicious Japanese Knotweed.. and waited some more. One of the group wandered over the bridge, noticed it was not the right one so we walked back to the cars, piled in and eventually found the right bridge!
We were met by the two stewards who look after the area – who were waiting for us with van and trailer. We hung around and waited for the last two in our party – Alex and Malcolm – to arrive, then at last started work. Whilst we were waiting, we watched some police hunt round in the bushes next to the river, and come back with two men that they arrested and bundled into their van. I must hasten to say, the men were not Alex and Malcolm!
Our task for the day was cutting huge buddleia bushes back from the side of the River Don. It was growing over the path, and the roots were damaging the steep sides of the river. We were given loppers, bow saws and a saw on a long pole, that looked as if it belonged to the Grim Reaper Himself! It looked a bit like the one in this link.
We all worked hard, and before long we had a huge amount of branches on the path, so we cut them into more manageable chunks, loaded them onto the trailer, and weighted them down with the heavier logs we had sawn off. The work was quite hard, but very satisfying being able to see the stretch we had hacked, and the difference we had made in a short period of time. Here is a link to the place we worked on.
On Friday I had my first special day off. My team had organised to do some work with the River Stewardship Company
All but two of us gathered at work and went down to the site having hung around on what we thought was the correct bridge. We enjoyed the view.. and waited.. and waited.. looked at the pernicious Japanese Knotweed.. and waited some more. One of the group wandered over the bridge, noticed it was not the right one so we walked back to the cars, piled in and eventually found the right bridge!
We were met by the two stewards who look after the area – who were waiting for us with van and trailer. We hung around and waited for the last two in our party – Alex and Malcolm – to arrive, then at last started work. Whilst we were waiting, we watched some police hunt round in the bushes next to the river, and come back with two men that they arrested and bundled into their van. I must hasten to say, the men were not Alex and Malcolm!
Our task for the day was cutting huge buddleia bushes back from the side of the River Don. It was growing over the path, and the roots were damaging the steep sides of the river. We were given loppers, bow saws and a saw on a long pole, that looked as if it belonged to the Grim Reaper Himself! It looked a bit like the one in this link.
We all worked hard, and before long we had a huge amount of branches on the path, so we cut them into more manageable chunks, loaded them onto the trailer, and weighted them down with the heavier logs we had sawn off. The work was quite hard, but very satisfying being able to see the stretch we had hacked, and the difference we had made in a short period of time. Here is a link to the place we worked on.
We had a well deserved lunch break at a local pub, where we examined the gashes and wounds on our bodies after such a hard morning Ok.. we only sustained one or two little scratches, nothing drastic lol… We had a nice lunch (my ravioli with cheese and spinach was lovely) the meals were washed down with glasses of pop.. of course it being officially part of work we would
never ever even consider touching a drop of the harder stuff!!
We got back and found the stewards waiting for us. They had taken the first trailer load of buddleia away to a site that would chip then compost it, and were ready for a second load. We did another few hours of work, loaded the trailer, and made a few tidy piles of the excess where it wouldn’t show.
We got back and found the stewards waiting for us. They had taken the first trailer load of buddleia away to a site that would chip then compost it, and were ready for a second load. We did another few hours of work, loaded the trailer, and made a few tidy piles of the excess where it wouldn’t show.
This is one of our group, Simon, taking a well deserved rest, with Richard in the background.
One of the stewards took us for a walk along the river, but I – not being super fit – found a rather comfortable log that wanted me to sit on it, so I sat and rested, listening to the sounds of the car tyre recycling plant, and the occasional birdy.
I got home that afternoon, filthy, exhausted but very happy – it had been a really satisfying day!
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