Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2013 | Page 49

COUNTRY LIFE 10 Y ea rs of Green Gy ming! Ten years ago the first Green Gym sessions started on the Island and they have been meeting every week, for three hours of practical conservation work, ever since. That is about 45,000 hours of volunteer man hours! They have worked in over 140 different locations across the Island. Performing; pond clearances, beach cleans, scrub clearance, path creation, school environmental work, the list goes on and on. Back in 2003 the first ‘work-out’ was held at the Fort Victoria Country Park and to complete the circle the IW Green Gym are returning to the site, to work around the Park and celebrate by unveiling a new gate the group has sponsored to mark the milestone. Green Gym’s leader Mark Russell said: “We’ve succeeded because of all the amazing volunteers, more than 450 who have joined us at different times. We’d also like to thank all of the local and national organisations, charities, schools and councils we work with each week, too numerous to list but essential as these partnerships we’ve made ensure our sustainability.” If you have a project you might like their help with check out their webpage. iwgreengym.org.uk Back to nature I feel that we have had a ‘proper’ summer this year; the sort that you can spend the day relaxing on the beach; sightseeing without having to take a coat; and warm evenings ideal for entertaining. It has also been a welcome relief for working in the countryside. Hay making, normally a stressful squeeze between showers, was a more relaxed affair along with combining, with yields not as bad as some feared. A lot of our time has been taken up assisting Natural Enterprise and dozens A cou ntry ma n's dia ry of volunteers, pulling and controlling Himalayan Balsam, which unfortunately has benefitted from our wet spring and warm summer. So much so that we had to resort to the tractor and flail mower in places. Also having extracted last year’s cut timber from one of our woodland jobs, we were able to carry out some work to the woodland tracks. These paths are often species rich in flora, attracting all sorts of insects and butterflies and as such are very important. It’s the sort of thing that gets missed until absolutely necessary. Lots of woodlands are growing on poor ground, often clay. The tracks tend to get rutted over a period of time, and although we try to reduce this by only using a quad bike in the winter, damage still occurs. Replacing pipes through ditches was relatively straight forward, but a shallow stream at one point meant we had to create a ford, causing us to scratch our heads and drink tea until the right approach had been agreed! www.visitislandlife.com 49