Scrub bashing at Padworth Common

Nine IB students volunteered their time and muscle power to Berkshire Conservation Volunteers for scrub bashing on Padworth Common, Berkshire. Scrub bashing is a term used for the removal of unwanted vegetation which encroaches on areas threatened by their aggressive presence.

The purpose of the activity was to remove encroaching scrub on the Common which is preventing Heather growing, a plant essential for maintaining a heathland habitat. Heathlands are becoming quite rare in England.  This is because the agricultural use of heathlands ended about 50 years ago and natural succession has since taken over and is trying to convert the heathland back to woodland. In order to maintain the heathland habitat for the many species of rare wildlife that depends on it we have to artificially recreate the traditional management regime. In the case of Padworth this means volunteer groups clearing scrub in place of the traditional grazing which would have kept the gorse and birch under control.

It was a very enjoyable day, the students worked very hard and the Berkshire conservation volunteers were extremely grateful for our hard work.

Neil from the Berkshire group sent this message: ‘Thanks for the helping hands provided by yourself and your students at Padworth Common yesterday. It certainly helped us to get a lot done, and I'm sure that the ranger who looks after the site will be happy. It's nice to have so many different languages being spoken on task! We can also now add Russia and China to the list of countries we've had volunteers from.'