Over half term a team of scouts from 1st Westbourne Scout Group spent a morning volunteering with Chichester Harbour Conservancy. Alice, aged 10 reports on their experience:
It was a cold October morning in half term when the Westbourne Scouts met at the Chichester Harbour Conservancy Education Centre. The team gave us a quick brief on why the work that Chichester Harbour Conservancy does is so important to nature here and the National Landscape.
Then we grabbed some gloves and litter pickers and walked from Dell Quay to a place on the foreshore they call “Rubbish Corner”. It was covered in litter washed up on the tide and we found many unusual items from a tube of mascara to what looked like a big car air freshener. And there were too many bits of polystyrene to count.
After that we walked further into the woods and came to the place where the Education Team take groups of younger children. There were two deep ponds that we cleared the weeds out of. Then we started clipping down twigs and brambles overhanging the path. Later we cleared the stinging nettles (ouch!) from around the display boards and the bug hotels. To keep the path clear we also raked the fallen leaves away – it was hard work!
The area we cleared up is used for teaching younger kids about the nature on our doorstep. Towards the end of the morning we made bird feeders with a piece of wire and threading on apple, raisins, cheese and bread. We tied the wire at the end then hung them off tree branches for the birds.
We ended by going back to the Education Centre where we got given a Harbour Life Magazine, some stickers and a postcard with a QR code to a film all about nature recovery.
All in all it was a brilliant and educational morning for all of us scouts.
There are a number of scout groups in the area; find your local group and how to get involved on the Scouts website.
