The Dorset Care Record team has spent their volunteering day this year helping conserve one of our rarest heathland habitats. Equipped with gloves and tree clippers, the team spent the day at RSPB Arne harvesting fast-growing pine trees that can spread rapidly through the lowland health and gorse.
The team saw a sika deer, which have become quite common on the reserve, but despite scouring the skies failed to spot the white tailed eagle which was seen at Arne at the weekend after flying over from the Isle of Wight.
Tony McDougal, DCR communications and engagement officer, said the team thoroughly enjoyed their day at Arne: “It was great to catch up with people – some of whom we’d only met on teams and others who we hadn’t seen since lockdown in March 2020.
“Lowland heath is a vital carbon sink so by helping conserve our fragile heathland, we are also doing our bit to tackle climate change.”
Hollymay Gladwin, RSPB Arne ranger, welcomed the team, saying they were the first corporate volunteers to return to Arne since the pandemic struck last year.
She said the pine pull was essential for the overall health of the reserve: “”The conservation work carried out by volunteers to remove small pines that threaten our internationally important heathland is really vital.
“The heathland habitat at Arne is rarer than tropical rainforest – over the last 200 years there has been an 80 per cent reduction in Dorset alone,” she added.
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