Celebrating our valued, varied and versatile volunteers in 2024
Julia Hoare & Alice Oakley
Volunteer Coordinators
In 2024, approximately 1000 amazing volunteers have supported the work of Sussex Wildlife Trust in a variety of ways.
Volunteer highlights this year have included the introduction of our on-line interest talks, which have proved really popular and have added to a sense of community. Our inaugural talk in January was ‘Making of Sussex’ by Director of Conservation Henri Brocklebank. We went on to offer talks on Our Sussex Seas, Our Wild Sussex, Beavers of Sussex and an Offbeat Ecological Ramble through our Nature Reserve.
During National Volunteers Week in June, many of our volunteers joined us for specially organised guided walks and refreshments, providing a real sense of community and a great chance to share ideas.
These are some of the many and varied roles you have undertaken for us across a variety of nature reserves and projects over the last year:
Planting, Popping, Processing and Planning
Volunteers have been involved with planting trees and hedgerows for habitat creation with our Wilder Horsham District and Wilder Ouse projects, popping Birch and Pine saplings on Nature Reserves with the conservation Hit Squads to open up areas for other species, processing coppiced material to make brash bundles for leaky dams and processing data about Kelp, WildCall and membership enquiries. We even have a volunteer who has helped us scrutinise planning applications for their potential impact on Sussex wildlife.
Guiding, Gardening and Gatwick Greenspace
Guides in the Hides and wardens at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, a Wildlife Gardening group at Woods Mill and a range of volunteers support the Gatwick Greenspace Partnership - a fabulous multi-faceted cross-county project that celebrated its 30th anniversary this year.
Lookering, Leading and Learning
Lookerers have been helping our Grazing Team to keep an eye on the welfare and security of our conservation grazing animals. Walk Leaders and Volunteer Reserve Managers have been leading walking and conservation groups for us at a number of our reserves across Sussex, and Education volunteers have been supporting Wilder Learning staff with environmental groups for young people - such as Wildlife Rangers and Youth Rangers.
Serving, Surveying and the Seashore
Volunteers have been serving visitors in the Rye Harbour Visitor Centre café and shop; Surveyors have been counting and submitting data about butterflies, breeding birds and beach litter. Marine volunteers have been surveying seaweeds and seashells on the seashore as a part of Shoresearch – a citizen science volunteer programme that monitors marine life in the intertidal zone on the Sussex coast.
Repairs, Removals, Rivers and the rest
Conservation group volunteers have been helping us to repair gates and fences, clearing scrub and invasives species like Himalayan Balsam, and restoring natural flow rates in rivers with leaky dams and scrapes and creating habitats such as widening hedgerows for Nightingales and opening up areas of scrub for Heather and other wild flowers.
Thank you to all our volunteers, and we wish you a very Happy New Year!