One way in which companies are supporting the Wildlife Trust for Beds, Cambs & Northants (WTBCN) is by booking their members of staff onto one of our Wild Work Days. These are available to any company or organisation but our Corporate Members benefit from discounted or even free days, depending on their level of membership.

They are fantastic days, which the WTBCN team also looks forward to. They take some organising to find the right nature reserve with staff to lead the days and suitable tasks to tackle, along with all the related administration and forms, lots of forms – but don’t panic as we only ask attendees to complete a simple medical and media consent form.

Gold level Corporate Member – SUEZ

Mischa, Senior Reserves Officer at Pitsford, commented that the team worked like Trojans and how good it was to hear the laughter from everyone there. Our Fundraising Manager, Helen and I also had a great day – being given saws and hardhats was very exciting - everyone certainly paid close attention to the health and safety briefing. It’s always satisfying to look back at the area you’ve been working on and what the team has achieved. It’s also satisfying to lie back in a warm bath and relax at the end of a hard day’s work.

Non-member (yet) – Octavius Infrastructure with staff from Cambridgeshire County Council, TMO Highways and Tarmac

The eyes of our task leader, Iain, lit up when he saw the group arrive, many of whom were used to working on road maintenance, as that day’s task of scrub clearance of thorn bushes and other invasive species is heavy going, with some mighty roots.

I was dressed for torrential rainfall – waterproof hat, gaiters and coat. But thankfully I’d made the strategic choice of layers because it turned into another warm and sunny day at our Fulbourn Fen nature reserve.

As often happens on these days, it became quite competitive about who clears the most invasive species and how big the bushes are. There are no prizes on offer apart from bragging rights.

This particular Wild Work Day took place in the same week as World Mental Health Day and Jamie, a project manager with Octavius Infrastructure, took the opportunity to talk about the importance of being aware of the mental health of all your colleagues, particularly as the construction industry has one of the highest levels of male suicides. He concluded the talk by saying that his door is always open and whilst it was a sobering moment, being out on a nature reserve is a good environment to talk about a whole range of topics.

If you think your company or organisation might benefit from joining us for a Wild Work Day at one of our nature reserves or be interested in becoming a WTBCN Corporate member then please don’t hesitate to contact us.