What A Difference A Day Makes

Making progress in Charlie's Field at a Corporate Workday for WSP employees

Joanna Bateman, wife of the New Ferry Butterfly Park Treasurer John Bateman, hosted a corporate workday for her employer WSP at New Ferry Butterfly Park. WSP is an international company providing engineering management and consultancy services to the built and natural environment. They have a local office in Exchange Station, Tithebarn Street, Liverpool.

Thirteen fresh-faced, young, fit volunteers turned up at the park and after a quick briefing, got stuck in straight away to a variety of jobs joined by a team of eleven of our own volunteers. Various long-standing jobs were tackled: restoring the plant pot trailer previously stripped down by an AstraZeneca corporate workday in March; extending the life of the Park’s compost bins, built in 2005, by lining the inside of the bays with 18mm plywood, reused from a former building site hoarding; turning the compost; bagging up wood chippings for autumn sales; repairing the trolley for collecting cuttings; plant sale stocks sorted and the invasive two flowered honey suckle removed.

John Bateman and co fixing the trailer

The main body of WSP volunteers concentrated on Charlie’s Field, in the area between the Silver Jubilee entrance gates and Aldi. The WSP volunteers got enthusiastically involved with removal of bramble and suckering blackthorn invading from the hedgerow as well as scything the wildflower grassland. One of the WSP volunteers, Alex, took to scything naturally and impressively gave the field as close a shave as you can get.

Alex, a scything natural, in Charlie's Field

The volunteers were given hot drinks and homemade butterfly cakes for elevenses. Following lunch, Joanna and John Bateman were invited to raise the 10th Community Green Flag that the park has recently been awarded. John Bateman organised a corporate workday for his employer, AstraZeneca, earlier in the year. What a great boost to the park the Bateman duo are!

Following the flag raising, Hilary Ash gave a 40-minute tour around the park giving an overall picture of the Park’s aims and projects. Then, fully rested, the WSP volunteers returned to their projects for another hour to complete them. Positive connections were made between the WSP employers as it was good to see fellow colleagues in the flesh than over a screen. They do have legs!

“For the first time Charlie’s Field is starting to look meadow like. Whilst using the scythe we could see the leaves of cowslips. These plants will benefit greatly from the removal of the competing vegetation. We hope to get a second cut of the field in the autumn. This is all in an attempt to make Charlie’s Field more suitable for opening up to the public in the future”, enthused Paul Loughnane, Honorary Reserve Manager.

Scything and bramble and blackthorn removal completed in Charlie's Field, thanks to WSP

Joanna Bateman said, “New Ferry Butterfly Park has become an important part of Bateman family life, with John being a volunteer here since 2018 and our two young children are big fans of bug hunting, butterfly spotting and berry picking when they visit. To have been able to coordinate my work colleagues coming to volunteer at the Park has been amazing. WSP are committed to giving back to the local community and provide their employees with Volunteer Days to be able to achieve this. To be able to have colleagues from several of our engineering disciplines in the Liverpool team come together in the Great Outdoors and get so much completed during the day was wonderful to see. I’ve been getting fantastic feedback from those who attended, with one saying it’s the best WSP volunteering day he’s been on. New Ferry Butterfly Park has so much to offer and give to the local community as well as all the benefits it has for the local ecology. Every visit seems to give something new to explore for me, from learning about Thick-Legged Flower Beetles and finding Bee Orchids, seeing a fox and last month I saw a hummingbird hawk moth flitting about. I really encourage anyone who hasn’t been to come and have a visit. I’m thankful that Paul, Hilary and the team were so welcoming and accommodating of WSP and look forward to planning more community events at this beautiful location.”

This corporate workday has been great for the park as it stimulates the park’s committee to get on with projects which they do not have the time and resources for. It raises the profile of the park further and builds links between WSP employees and our own volunteers. John Bateman came four years ago to learn how to scythe and has stayed with the park and become our treasurer. Let us hope some of the WSP volunteers catch that bug too.