This year, more than 30 students aged between 14 and 17 years of age joined Barnes Common Ltd to volunteer as part of their Duke of Edinburgh (DoE) award. These students carried out a range of tasks that made a significant contribution to the conservation and biodiversity of the Common, as well as contributing to the Community Growers project at Vine Rd Rec. Overall, they gave well over 1,000 volunteering hours to the community. Many of them enjoyed volunteering so much that they have continued to volunteer well beyond the completion of their DoE award.
Barnes Common Ltd would like to welcome two new DoE supervisors, Anna and Adam. They are pictured here together with four of our DoE students, who spent a couple of hours last weekend working in partnership with the BCA on Barnes Green.
Having erected willow hedges several months ago to protect the newly-planted bulbs on the Green, the DoE team has now removed the willow hedges in preparation for the Barnes Fair. They will recycle all the materials, so any wire and stakes will be reused next year, while the brash has been made into the hedge in this picture.
Dead hedging provides an important additional habitat that encourages a more diverse range of plants, insects and animals, so it makes a significant contribution to increased biodiversity.
Learn more about the importance of deadwood here and our work on the conservation of saproxylic (deadwood-dwelling) insects here.