Friday 25 August 2017

Environment Agency: Working Hard, Eating Hard


The Environment Agency encourages its employees to devote two days a year to community and environmental projects. I am a Waste Regulatory Officer. My usual day job involves responding to incidents, inspecting a wide variety of sites from recycling sites, landfills and household waste transfer stations, investigating illegal waste sites etc. So it was a pleasant contrast to take a day away from regulating to help the environment in a different context: conservation.

Our group consisted of other Merseyside Waste Regulatory Officers, Land and Water Officers who investigate and prevent pollution incidents and Enforcement Officers involved in the tackling of waste crime and enforcement.



Photo: Steve Lyus

At New Ferry  Butterfly Park we split into  three groups; felling an Elm tree to prevent the spread of Dutch Elm disease, removing young sycamores to make way for planned new bee hives, using Austrian scythes to tackle brambles and clearing patches of ground to re-expose the railway track in order to create space for wild flowers.

It wasn't all work either. After we had stuffed ourselves with cooking from our BBQ, cake and homemade brownies, Hilary took us on a tour and shared with us the fascinating history of the site and her specialist botanical knowledge. We also did some pond dipping.


Photo : Paul Loughnane



















We enjoyed making a contribution to protecting vulnerable species of plants and butterflies. One of the officers commented to me, "I thought the commitment and enthusiasm from the volunteers was lovely and inspiring, they had worked so hard and dedicated many years to produce such a great resource for local schools and the community". We all learned new skills and had new experiences (for some, it was their first time on a compost loo) and the weather was kind to us.

I would heartily recommend other groups to come and help out.

Thanks to Paul, Hilary, Steve (x2) and Howard

Debbie McCall
Environment Officer (GMMC) Merseyside EPR Waste

Debbie with her prize elm cutting
























No comments:

Post a Comment