The Stormwater Shepherds team had a ‘Grand Day Out’ in March, meeting up with other friends and volunteers to pick rubbish off the King’s Mead Nature Reserve near Ware. The Nature Reserve is one of the largest water meadows in Hertfordshire; 265 different species of wildflower and 119 bird species have been recorded here and the reserve is famous for its dragonflies and damselflies.
We had been on a site visit and noticed large amounts of wind-blown litter were strewn across the Reserve, having blown off lorries and trucks crossing over the A10 overpass. We found lots of polystyrene, plastic sheeting, bubble wrap and cardboard.
We met up with friends from the local Wildlife Trust, a river action group, a local business and the sponsors of Stormwater Shepherds UK, SPEL Products. We were even joined by the High Sherriff of Hertfordshire who worked his socks off carrying wood and rubbish back to the skip. We were lucky that RiverLabs allowed us to use their car-park and a group of their staff helped with the task and helped to collect all the rubbish and to get it back to the car-park in their wheelbarrows.
Days like this take a lot of organising, but they are so very worthwhile. Not only did we remove loads of litter from the reserve before the nesting season so that any risk to wildlife was taken away, but we made new friends, had a fun day out in nature and got our ‘steps in’! What a brilliant day. Maybe you could organise a litter-pick near your local river?
