Twyford

Office workers will be leaving their desks behind in favour of wellies and mud on Friday as 365 of them descend on the borough’s biggest country park at Hurst to take part in one of the biggest ever conservation days held in the Wokingham Borough.

More than 350 volunteers from Microsoft will be joined by four regular Hurst volunteers and 11 volunteers from the Friends of Lavell’s Lake on Friday to carry out a whole year’s worth of conservation work in just one working day!

The tasks they will be carrying out include:
• Hurst Scrub bashing
• Reed-bed and meadow management
• Footpath creation

The work they carry out at Lavell’s Lake Nature Reserve, Sandford Lake and Middle Marsh will help wildlife flourish by creating better hunting habitats for rare species like barn owls and bitterns. Plus the creation of better footpaths will help the 500,000 people who visit the park each year to get around more easily and see more of the park.

Lucy Harris, Hurstcountryside ranger who has organised the conservation and team building event, said: “It’s fantastic that so many volunteers from Microsoft are joining us on Friday as it really will help us get a huge amount of conservation work completed.

We’re lucky to have regular volunteers, including the Friends of Lavell’s Lake, that help out but we’re always looking for enthusiastic volunteers to join us and have a number of conservation tasks available for any company wanting to come down and try them – they make perfect team-building events.”

Successful conservation days have previously been held with employees from Thames Water, Cisco, the Environment Agency and Army officers based at Arborfield Garrison.

Wokingham Borough Council ~ Hurst