The Manchester office swapped their suits for boots as they partnered with The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) and were put to work maintaining meadows and paving paths for their volunteering day earlier this year in celebration of TNEI’s 25th Anniversary.
The team agreed there was no better way to celebrate the 25th anniversary of TNEI than to get their hands dirty helping local wildlife, rewarded afterwards by some well-earned food at the pub!
Our Manchester office employees are typically accustomed to a fairly sodden climate. However, on this particular Friday at Sale Water Park, an area of woodland, meadows and a lake in South Manchester, the sky was a brilliant blue and the sun was shining. The day was blessed from the get-go!
There were two tasks that the team got busy with: path construction and meadow management. Both tasks oxymoronically involved cutting back plants (which lumberjack Mustafa loved!) rather than planting them as you might think we would do! However, TCV explained the purposes of these tasks:
- Meadow management: Over 95% of meadows in the UK have been destroyed and these are a key habitat for wildlife and biodiversity. Sale Water park is naturally more of a woodland habitat but pockets that have the right conditions are kept as meadows by TCV to provide a place for small mammals, frogs and insects to make their home! In order to maintain these meadows, the encroaching woodland needs to be cut back (one of TNEI’s jobs!). As well as this, the wildflowers and grass that grow in the meadow need relatively infertile soil (again slightly counter intuitive!). In order to keep the soil like this, the grass needs to be cut in the Autumn and raked away so it doesn’t decompose and fertilise the soil too much. To do this a scythe is used instead of a lawnmower in order to give small animals a chance to run away! This was another big job that TNEI got stuck into. Waseem was an absolute master with the scythe. He was almost as efficient cutting through grass as he is working his way through all our IT issues!
- Path construction: Since Sale Water park is right in the middle of South Manchester which is highly populated there are loads of dog walkers, cyclists and locals that visit. To prevent people stomping through all the wildlife, it is important to have paths they can use instead (paths keep everyone in line… I know terrible). As well as this, the more people that visit the area the better protected it is. Dog walkers wouldn’t be happy if a load of developers started trying to build on their beloved Sale water park! Some of the visitors might even donate to TCV and other conservation charities to keep it maintained.
- Pub trip: This was the final and most important task for TNEI. It can’t really be argued that it benefitted the surrounding nature much, but everyone had a well-deserved dinner after all the hard work. Harry was the star of the show at this task – enjoying plenty of post-work refreshments!
All in all, the day was a great success. We can barely wait for the day TNEI turns 50 and we do it again!
Thank you to everyone who dedicated their time and contributed to TNEI’s 25th anniversary celebrations throughout the year.
