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ESG volunteering with Jamie Oliver Group and The Conservation Volunteers

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The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) are delighted to partner with the Jamie Oliver Group to help bring their teams back together for two ESG volunteering events.

To celebrate the fantastic achievements of the Jamie Oliver Group teams, we asked Emma Burkinshaw, TCV Corporate Executive, to share the story of these habitat-creating, biodiversity-increasing and team-strengthening ESG volunteering events…

Connecting people and green spaces in London

TCV partnered with the Jamie Oliver Group to host two corporate volunteering events in North and South London.

Jamie Oliver Group’s aim was to bring colleagues together after working apart for so long due to the pandemic for a good cause…

“Multiple teams across Jamie Oliver Group had the chance to volunteer with TCV. After over a year of uncertainty and not being able to see each other, TCV gave us the opportunity to come together, challenge ourselves and really make a difference!”

Chloe Ibrahim, Jamie Oliver Group

Alexandra Palace and the Earthshot Prize

The first ESG volunteering event took place at Alexandra Palace in North London following an Earthshot Prize event held at the venue. This world-renowned event rewards people around the world for helping the environment.

Taking inspiration from President John F. Kennedy’s Moonshot, which united millions of people in the 1960s around an organising goal to put a man on the moon and catalysed the development of new technology, The Earthshot Prize is centred on five ‘Earthshots’ – simple but ambitious goals for our planet that, if achieved by 2030, will improve life for us all, for future generations. 

The Earthshot Prize gifted 5 x mature trees to the park (joining over 7,000 existing trees) and needed to be planted with the greatest of care to ensure the best chance of survival.

This was an incredibly exciting opportunity for the Jamie Oliver Group to plant these mature trees in the park and TCV could not have planted the trees without their help!

“We felt so lucky to have the chance to plant these trees and see the immediate results of our work. It was a hard day’s work that brought everyone closer, and we left with a sense of pride and real achievement.”

Chloe Ibrahim, Jamie Oliver Group

Russia Dock Woodland at Stave Hill Ecological Park

The second ESG volunteering event took place at Russia Dock Woodland in South London, part of Stave Hill Ecological Park.

Stave Hill Ecological Park is managed by TCV’s Urban Ecology team as a nature reserve, educational facility, research area and place of recreation. The Park has been designed and managed to form a mosaic of grassland, woodland, scrub and wetland habitats that support a wide variety of wildlife.

Another dedicated team of volunteers from the Jamie Oliver Group completed important woodland tasks at the site!

“We worked outside all day tree felling and clearing space for new growth. It was such a nice day and we all felt so lucky to be able to help, especially at the end of the day when we could see how much space had been cleared.”

Amba, Jamie Oliver Group

Corporate volunteering events such as these are essential to our work at TCV.

With the ongoing help of corporate volunteers through CSR and ESG events, we can continue to protect over 1,400 green spaces across the UK and continue to connect people to the green spaces that form a vital part of any healthy, happy community.

We want to say a huge thank you to Jamie Oliver Group for their employees’ enthusiasm! This combined volunteering work has played a key role in helping our team’s ongoing conservation efforts across both of these green space sites in London. We also congratulate Jamie Oliver Group on achieving certification as a B Corporation!

Take a look here for further ESG and CSR challenges from TCV and corporate partners.

Keep up to date with the latest news and activities from The Conservation Volunteers by following on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. You can also sign up to receive our Greenzine newsletter for more ways to get involved.

Tree care tips – heeling in

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This tree companion care guide ensures young tree whips have the best chance of survival.

The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) offer free trees for communities as part of the hugely successful I Dig Trees programme with OVO Energy. With the help of people like you, we are planting millions of healthy trees for climate, for wildlife and for communities.

Looking after your new tree arrivals

Your trees have enjoyed a full year growing from seed in the comfortable environment of a nursery. They’ve been looked after throughout the season and checked for quality before being sent out into the environment where they’ll live the rest of their lives – thriving to maturity, capturing carbon and providing a home for an array of beautiful wildlife.

The trees are entering the most crucial stage in their lives

In nature, when a seed hits the ground or is planted (it’s not just humans who plant seeds, birds and rodents do too!) and germinates, that’s where it will stay for good.

But your trees have experienced an incredible upheaval. They’ve been dug up, packed, and spent days in transit. That’s a real stress for any plant – but they are still young, hardy, and adaptable. If you take good care of them during this transition, they’ll be eager to grow, and you’ll be giving them the best possible start in life.

Flowering hawthorn branch

Getting the trees safely in the ground

As soon as we ‘lift’ trees (dig up the saplings) we ship them quickly in moisture-retaining packaging and what you do with them when they arrive is critical.

Tree planting season in the UK runs from November to March (essentially colder months when they are not actively growing). You can plant trees at any time during the season before they start to ‘wake up’ from their dormant state. But you can’t hold on to them for too long even during the season.

They need to be in the ground as quickly as possible to stay healthy.

Can I plant the trees straight away?

Yes!

Carefully unwrap your trees and check them over. Make sure they’re the species you chose, look for signs of damage. The roots should be moist – keep them that way. If they’re looking a little dry, then splash them with some water.

Always keep them covered in the bags they came in for as long as possible, don’t be tempted to spread them out on the ground too soon. Even in winter, roots exposed to the air can dry out in minutes.

Dig your hole and get the tree in as quickly as possible for the best chance of survival.

Dogwood branches with buds in spring

It’s a few days until I’m ready to plant our trees. What do I do?

That’s ok, if they’re kept in the bag and the roots are moist, they can survive for up to a week, no more than two weeks.

We only ship trees in the planting season when deciduous trees are dormant. They’ve stored all the energy they need in their roots and will stay this way until the weather warms and spring arrives. But they’ll need healthy moist roots to start growing, so keep them cool, moist and in a dark sheltered place.

Tree planting has been delayed: I can’t plant the trees for a few weeks

This happens. The weather might be inclement, or your tree planting event plans have changed.

That’s ok too, but you’ll need to give the trees a little more care and attention.

Again, it’s all about keeping the roots happy. In the delivery bags, they’re well protected, but they can still dry out slowly. It’s no surprise that tree roots want to be underground – it’s cool, it’s dark, it’s moist and it’s sheltered. Perfect!

If you need to store the trees for longer than a week, then there’s a process called ‘heeling in’. It’s a storage solution where bundles of trees are temporarily planted until you need them, and best of all it’s really simple.

If your plans change and you can’t plant immediately, don’t worry, here’s a handy guide on what to do:

Dougy explains the tree care ‘heeling in’ process

Step 1

Find a safe place out of the way where you can store the trees until you’re ready to plant.

Step 2

Dig a trench long enough to place your trees in their bundles and deep enough to cover the roots. A spade’s depth is fine, it doesn’t need to be neat, and you don’t need to separate the trees; they can be packed close together.

Step 3

Lay the bundles against one side of the trench making sure the roots all fit in the hole below the surface.

Step 4

Back-fill the trench with the soil you removed making sure to cover all the roots – dig up some extra soil and add a little more rather than leaving any roots exposed.

Step 5

Gently, using the heel of your boot firm the soil around the roots so they’re nice and secure. Try and ensure there are no air gaps that could dry up or fill with water but don’t overdo it. You’ll need to get them back out when you’re ready to plant and need to avoid damaging them in the process.

Rowan berries on a branch

How long will they last?

Trees can be kept this way until they start to grow again – at which point the roots will all start to grow and tangle together – so try and get them planted properly before the end of the season.

When you’re ready to plant, simply loosen the earth around the roots gently with a spade or garden fork and lift the trees out.

If you need to transport them, put them back in the bag they came in and you’re ready to go!

Keep up to date with the latest news and activities from The Conservation Volunteers by following on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

You can also sign up to receive our Greenzine newsletter for more ways to get involved.

London schools take practical action for climate and wildlife

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The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) have pledged to plant 5 million trees for people and green spaces by 2025 and our phenomenally popular I Dig Trees programme is open for you to claim free trees for climate, wildlife and communities.

At the same time, TCV is helping the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, to deliver the London Schools’ Climate Kick-Start campaign giving students the chance to make a real difference during this important time of environmental action.

We asked Peter Hutchings, TCV Fundraising and Partnerships Manager, to share the story of this habitat-creating, climate-influencing challenge…

Planting trees for climate and wildlife

TCV delivered a tree planting day for 90 students of Harris Garrard Academy in South London, using UK grown saplings to create multiple wooded areas and a blossom tunnel on the school grounds.

Ahead of the planting, TCV supported The Edible Bus Stop to lead workshops with the students. Giving them an opportunity to discuss how and where the new trees would be planted, consider their purpose and make plans as to how future students would interact with them, nurturing a lifelong love for trees and nature.

Inspirational students

It was truly inspiring to hear the student’s understanding of the climate challenges we must face together, and the nature-based solutions, such as tree planting, which have a crucial role to play in tackling the climate and ecological emergency.

Not just from a scientific perspective, the students were very comfortable expressing very profoundly how important trees, green space and the natural world are key to their wellbeing and mental health. They also know we’re all part of the global environment and have a huge responsibility to uphold to protect it.

Climate Kick Start is about engaging young people to help us make London one of the greenest and cleanest global cities.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan

Wildlife friendly planting

Classes from years 7, 8 and 9 planted 500 trees comprising of a mixture of Dog Rose, Field Maple, Hawthorn, Crab Apple and Wild Cherry. These trees offer great habitats for wildlife, increasing biodiversity on the school grounds and will become future carbon-busting machines!

The London Schools’ Climate Kick-Start has seen London’s secondary schools working together to tackle some of our planet’s biggest threats, like climate change and air pollution.

Parents, Teachers and Londoners should be extremely proud of the students at Harris Garrard Academy, they are an inspiring bunch and a real pleasure to work with.

The Climate Kick Start tree planting activity at Harris Garrard Academy with TCV was a huge success. The students generated quite a buzz around the school talking about actions they can take today for their community to combat climate change.

Ms. Kimberly Ferran, Science Teacher, Harris Garrard Academy

The future is bright in their hands!

Peter Hutchings, TCV Fundraising and Partnerships Manager

Keep up to date with the latest news and activities from The Conservation Volunteers by following on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. You can also sign up to receive our Greenzine newsletter for more ways to get involved.

Controlling invasive species, giving native flora a chance to thrive

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The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) have pledged to plant 5 million trees for people and green spaces by 2025 and our phenomenally popular I Dig Trees programme is open for you to claim free trees for climate, wildlife and communities.

With TCV it’s not just about the planting. We offer advice regarding essential aftercare, giving young trees the best start. We also carry out projects across the UK to maintain planted trees. Our amazing volunteers carry out invasive species management, freeing up space and light to give both native trees and plants a chance to thrive. We improve access to woodlands for communities to enjoy, whilst also using them as a training offer for adults and an educational resource for children, inspiring a life-long love for nature.

Invasive species effect on biodiversity

As we work together with our fantastic partners, volunteers and thousands of community groups across the UK to reach our ambitious target, Ruth Coxon, TCV Senior Project Officer tells us about the importance of invasive species management in Reading, Berkshire…

At Highwood Nature Reserve in Woodley, conservation activities conducted by TCV involve non-native invasive species removal to improve the biodiversity and ecological functioning of the woodland.

Volunteers taking practical action to remove invasive species giving native flora a chance to thrive.

Non-native, invasive species are a real problem globally, being among the largest threats to biodiversity in the world, thought to have cost the UK a whopping £5billion since the 1970s.

Many of these species were accidentally introduced, or sometimes on purpose, without knowing their full ecological impacts. Having not evolved to cope with these alien competitors, our native flora is under threat, with some populations becoming locally extinct as a result.

Some non-native invasive species are actually listed on Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, meaning that it is an offence to cause them to exist in the wild.

Letting in the light brings new food for insects

Shrubs being removed at Highwood, like cherry laurel and rhododendron, were thought to have been brought here by the Victorians, planted as ornamental bushes or for game cover on estates, but have since reaped havoc within our native woodlands.

These evergreen bushes may disguise themselves as good hedging material in people’s gardens and create good screen cover, but in our native woodlands, they drastically reduce biodiversity.

Their large shiny leaves are largely unpalatable to insects, leaving them green all year around which actively out-shades and out-competes the more beneficial ground flora, choking dense woodlands and reducing the chances for natural regeneration of our native tree species.

Signage informing the public of what action is being taken and how to join in and volunteer.

With limited access to light, overall plant diversity radically diminishes within laurel and rhododendron overrun woodlands, especially since rhododendron injects toxins into the soil, preventing any plant growth underneath them. Both species also actively sucker, spreading roots that quickly take over. Recent studies also suggest that rhododendron can kill certain solitary bees or honeybee species when they drink nectar from their flowers.

Giving communities access to nature

These reasons alone are enough to promote TCV in helping reverse the degradation of our woodlands, but the benefits of removing these invasives are also being noticed by passers-by!

The newly opened-up canopy, particularly surrounding the footpaths has made the public feel safer. Locals who regularly use the woodland are frequently commenting on the positive impacts to them…

You’re all doing a wonderful job, I can remember when there used to be no light here and now there is, so thank you for opening it all up again!

It’s great that it is so open, it makes it feel much safer.

Members of the public

Increasing biodiversity

We are also now noticing greater plant diversity in the areas where these invasive species have been removed, only a year after cutting them down.

Species like wood avens, wood anemone, foxglove, willowherb, and nightshade species have been recorded as well as the noticeable natural regeneration of native trees like cherry, elm, field maple, yew and rowan.

Wood anemones (Anemone nemorosa)

Thanks to the volunteers

This is all thank you to the regular Woodland Improvement Team volunteers and the various corporate groups which have had a hand in improving Highwood Nature Reserve, each person has made an immense impact on improving the site, which has been repeatedly praised by Wokingham Borough Council as site owners:

Thank you to your volunteers. What they’ve done, looks really good.

Your team have already made a great difference to the woodland.

Richard Westwood, Senior Ranger

Whilst we have made an incredible impact on curbing the non-native invasion of shrubs at Highwood, there is still more to do. We hope to make more progress removing laurel and rhododendron here over the next couple of years and improve it for both people and wildlife.

Thank you to the Rangers who have supported us with this project so far.

Foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea)

Keep up to date with the latest news and activities from The Conservation Volunteers by following on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. You can also sign up to receive our Greenzine newsletter for more ways to get involved.

The Conservation Volunteers at COP26

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To celebrate the fantastic achievements of our volunteers, taking practical action for biodiversity and climate during the COP26 summit and beyond, we asked Tim Lewis, TCV Operations Leader, to share some insight into TCV’s role at the United Nations Climate Change Conference…

What role are The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) playing in COP26?

The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) have exhibited our work connecting people and green spaces in the COP26 Green Zone and also in the Google Arts and Culture virtual green zone – demonstrating our work for the environment and communities in Glasgow and across the UK.

By reaching out to attendees during the event we can hopefully connect more people to green spaces, delivering lasting outcomes for communities and the environment.

What steps is TCV taking to mitigate the impact of climate change?

With our hugely successful I Dig Trees programme, we’re aiming to have planted 2 million trees by the end of this tree planting season (March 2022) with the help of communities across the UK – you can help us get there by signing up for your own free trees. This season’s first trees are going in the ground during COP26!

If you can’t plant trees, you can still help us a huge amount by spreading the word and sharing these posts: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn

What benefits is COP26 is bringing to TCV?

COP26 is helping The Conservation Volunteers to reach more people, connecting them to their green spaces and showing them they can have an impact on the ground to help tackle the climate and biodiversity emergencies. We invite them to join in, feel good! You can find out more here.

What do you think the legacy of COP26 will be for Glasgow as a city?

I think this very much depends on the outcome of the conference itself.

The UK Royal Family view COP26 as the ‘last chance saloon’ for addressing the climate crisis, it definitely feels like a hugely important point for the climate movement.

If leaders commit to an incredibly innovative new approach that changes the world for the better, then the legacy for the city of Glasgow would be immense. Glasgow would forever be remembered as the place where these changes started, and the world got serious about climate breakdown. The alternative is hard to even comprehend.

What do you think visitors to Glasgow will like most about the city and its people?

After speaking with all of our staff based in the city we feel that the lasting impression on visitors to Glasgow will come from the people they meet. Glaswegians are a friendly, welcoming, gregarious and diverse group of people who are rightly proud of their city, its history and its impact on the world. This heritage is written across the city’s many wonderful museums and cultural highlights, which might surprise many visitors.

The city is full of incredible food and waves of immigration across the 20th century mean you can eat from all over the world in Glasgow. The city is also incredibly close to some of the most beautiful parts of Scotland, Loch Lomond just half an hour from the city centre and the Inner Hebrides just a short ferry ride away. Visitors to the city will take all this in alongside fantastic shopping, business opportunities and the city’s many famous pubs, bars and music venues which are the beating heart of Glasgow and the people that live there.

How do you think local communities will benefit from COP26 being hosted in Glasgow?

Glasgow in Gaelic translates as ‘Dear Green Place’ and the city often isn’t seen in a way that reflects this. The post-industrial landscape and modern vibrancy of the city sometimes overshadow the beautiful parks and accessible spaces Glasgow has to offer.

TCV feel that hosting COP in Glasgow is helping to change this perception of the city and for people to see it as a forward-thinking, environmentally-conscious and green place to live and work – with access for everyone to those green spaces that are so important. There are more than 90 parks in Glasgow, canals, rivers, local nature reserves and city centre woodlands. All of these need protecting and COP will raise the awareness around pressures on these places.

Keep up to date with the latest news and activities from The Conservation Volunteers by following on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. You can also sign up to receive our Greenzine newsletter for more ways to get involved.

I Dig Trees guest blog: By leaves we live

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Together we continue to smash our tree planting targets for climate, wildlife and communities!

But we have only just begun. This year, with the help of thousands of community groups and volunteers, we are going further than ever before with I Dig Trees: 2 million FREE trees in the ground by the end of this tree planting season.

With this year’s planting to commence during the COP26 Climate Summit, Prof Dave Reay, Chair in Carbon Management & Education, School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, tells us how the trees ordered through our free trees programme with OVO Energy are helping to meet climate goals and plans to ultimately reach ‘net zero’.

Trees underpin planetary health

The pioneering town planner, biologist, educationalist and geographer Sir Patrick Geddes coined the phrase ‘By Leaves We Live’ to encapsulate the dependence of all humankind on plants, trees and natural ecosystems around the world. In the context of Covid lockdowns, the climate emergency, and a deepening nature crisis, Geddes’ words have never been more relevant.

The lockdowns have provided an acute focus on just how vital green space and trees are to our mental and physical health, but trees underpin planetary health too. Representing huge stocks and sinks of carbon globally, the destruction and degradation forests due to land use change constitutes a major source of human-induced carbon dioxide emissions. On top of those burgeoning land use pressures, climate change itself, and the increased risks of wildfires, drought and disease, are an increasing threat to forests around the world.

Meeting the Paris climate goals will require huge and sustained efforts

In this climate emergency, and with the Paris Climate Goals at risk of slipping beyond our reach, losing yet more of the protective green canopy that is the world’s trees is the last thing we can afford. More and more nations are waking up to this threat, yet deforestation continues apace in many areas as the pressures for more food and fodder production escalate. Meeting the Paris Climate Goals will require huge and sustained efforts to safeguard existing forests. It will also need a lot of new trees too.

For the UK, like many countries, woodland expansion is a cornerstone of plans to reach ‘net zero’ – where carbon emissions from sources like fossil fuel burning are reduced to the absolute minimum, and any unavoidable emissions that remain are then balanced by increased sequestration. Woodland expansion that leads to sustained carbon uptake, along with enhancement of soil carbon stocks, can therefore play a major role in achieving net-zero. But, and it’s a big but, this is no silver bullet for climate change.

Native woodland expansion and enhanced biodiversity

The land provides for myriad human needs, from food and fibre, to housing and recreation, as well as the needs of millions of other species we share this planet with. Woodland expansion often means striking a new balance between these needs. Some may be complimentary – such as native woodland expansion and enhanced biodiversity – while others may seem at direct odds. In reality, there are always some co-benefits and some trade-offs (READ: Land Use and Agriculture: Pitfalls and Precautions on the Road to Net Zero).

Gaining a good understanding of these, right down to the local scales of most woodland creation projects, remains one of the biggest challenges to realising sustainable woodland expansion in the face of the climate emergency.

Plants for places – bringing trees back to centre stage

In our own very small way, my family and I have been grappling with this challenge over the past few years. Our farm on the west coast of Scotland has been used for sheep grazing for generations. Other than a couple of acres of fenced alder planting, and some inaccessible gulleys stuffed with rowan, oak, hazel and willow, it is land where the combined bite of sheep and Atlantic storms has made trees a peripheral part of the landscape. The task now is to bring them back to centre stage.

A crucial first step to doing this was to work closely with the wonderful sheep farmer who grazes part of his flock on our land – agreeing where and when sheep grazing would be removed, to allow him and us to plan ahead. The next, pretty exhausting, stage, was to intensively sample and analyse the soils in all our fields, providing a baseline for soil carbon to assess any future changes against, and to understand the soil depth, texture, moisture and pH to inform which trees and shrubs would do well, and where.

Zoned plans for planting were drawn up, and we began to gather together a small army of willing friends and family to help with the planting. We also started planning for colleagues and students to make use of our putative ‘carbon farm’ for climate education and research. It was all coming together. Then Covid hit.

Trees planted and growing well

Instead of getting thousands of new trees in the ground across the planting season, it was a case of using the narrow windows between lockdowns to plant what we could. Thanks to The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) – who gifted many of the trees – and the amazing efforts of my wife and youngest daughter as champion planters – hundreds of trees did get planted and these are growing well.

Most importantly we’ve been able to understand our land better, and the wider natural and social ecosystems it is part of.

Prof Dave Reay, FRSGS, SFHEA, PhD

Now, as restrictions lift and a new season approaches, we’re looking forward to realising some of our pre-Covid plans and looking back on what we have learned. Over these past 18 months we have been able to think hard about where trees should and shouldn’t go; we’ve had the opportunity to gauge establishment rates, deer browsing risks, and the work required to keep young trees free from weeds and smothering by bracken. Most importantly we’ve been able to understand our land better, and the wider natural and social ecosystems it is part of.

Teaching the next generation about the sustainable use of complex, integrated landscapes

When we do eventually bring cohorts of students to our farm, it will no longer simply be to learn about how trees can tackle climate change. Instead, the focus will be on sustainable use of the complex and integrated landscapes that trees are a part of; landscapes that can play a major role in climate action yes, but that must also deliver for biodiversity, food production, livelihoods and myriad other needs.

Whatever the initial students come to learn about, the take-home message for all will inevitably be: By Leaves We Live.

Prof Dave Reay

Website: https://edinburghcentre.org | Twitter: @keelingcurve

We’d like to say a huge thanks to Prof Dave Reay, Chair in Carbon Management & Education, School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, for contributing this I Dig Trees guest blog.

The Conservation Volunteers is helping people like you to plant more trees. Claim your free trees here.

Keep up to date with the latest news and activities from The Conservation Volunteers by following on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. You can also sign up to receive our Greenzine newsletter for more ways to get involved.

Find out more about the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26)

The winter blues: Getting through the season with SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)

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What is SAD?

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that often occurs at the same time each year, typically in the autumn and winter.

What does SAD feel like?

SAD, also known as seasonal depression, can have an impact on your mood, sleep, appetite, and energy levels, affecting all aspects of your life, from your relationships and social life to work, school, and your sense of self-worth.

Key symptoms of SAD can include:

  • Depression.
  • Feelings of hopelessness, sadness, guilt, anxiety and apathy.
  • Overeating and weight gain.
  • Sleep problems (having trouble sleeping or sleeping too much).
  • Having difficulties carrying out daily tasks.
  • Change of appetite, notably craving sugary and starchy foods.
  • Tension and stress.
  • Unexplained aches and pains.
  • Feeling low and unsociable.

You may feel completely different than you did in the summer months. You are not alone…

“It’s thought the winter blues, or seasonal affective disorder (SAD), affects around 2 million people in the UK and more than 12 million people across northern Europe. It can affect people of any age, including children.”

NHS Inform

What causes Seasonal Affective Disorder?

According to the Seasonal Affective Disorder Association (SADA), and without getting overly technical, it is believed to be caused by a biochemical imbalance in the hypothalamus (a region of the brain) as a result of shorter daylight hours and lack of sunlight during the winter.

Can SAD affect people differently?

Not everyone suffers from SAD. Some people are thought to be more sensitive to light levels than others, resulting in these symptoms of winter blues.

SAD can be a severely disabling illness for some people, preventing them from functioning normally in the absence of ongoing medical treatment. Others experience a mild but debilitating condition that causes discomfort but not severe suffering. This is referred to as subsyndromal SAD or the ‘winter blues.’

What can I do to alleviate the symptoms of SAD?

1. Seek help

Firstly, it’s important to say that if your symptoms are so bad that you can’t live a normal life, you should always see your GP for support and advice.

2. Keep active

There is a wealth of evidence that Green Gyms and other nature-based programmes provide proven benefits in improving peoples’ health and wellbeing. Find out more about Green Spaces for Mental Health.

3. Get outside

Spend as much time as possible outside in natural daylight, especially at midday and on brighter days. Take regular walks during work or lunch breaks even if it’s just around the block. Also, consider joining a practical conservation team in your local area.

4. Balance your diet

A healthy diet will improve your mood, give you more energy, and stave off weight gain during the winter. Consume plenty of fresh fruit and especially vegetables to counteract your craving for carbohydrates such as pasta and potatoes. Follow these tips from the NHS to live well, eat well.

5. Let your light shine

When working, sit near windows whenever possible or even take your work outside if you can.

Some people find that light therapy can alleviate the symptoms of SAD. Special light boxes (10 x stronger than ordinary home lighting) are available online. The cost for these is £70 or more, they are not currently available on the NHS but they are showing signs of coming down in price.

For people experiencing milder symptoms, SAD alarm clocks can also be useful in overcoming seasonal depression.

6. See friends, family and fellow volunteers

Socialising is good for your mental health and helps ward off the winter blues. Make extra efforts to:

  • Keep in touch with people you care about and who care about you.
  • Accept invitations you get to social events.
  • Join in with group activities such as volunteering.

    Make your best efforts to join in, even if you only manage to for a little while.

7. Talk it through

Talking treatments such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), counselling and psychotherapy can help you cope with symptoms. Talk to your GP for information on what’s available locally on the NHS.

8. Consider the 5 ways to wellbeing

TCV supports the 5 ways to wellbeing (developed by the New Economics Foundation). Consider this in your approach to dealing with SAD or the winter blues.

Join in, feel good

Many of the recommendations above can be achieved by joining in with The Conservation Volunteers activities across the UK.

For further information regarding SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and the help you can get to alleviate the symptoms, please visit the NHS website.

Keep up to date with the latest news and activities from The Conservation Volunteers by following on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. You can also sign up to receive our Greenzine newsletter for more ways to get involved.

Celebratory CSR challenge brings hundreds together for nature

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The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) are delighted to partner with PwC to help deliver their One Firm One Day (OFOD) annual, firm-wide, fundraising and volunteering event.

To celebrate the fantastic achievements of the PwC teams, we asked Peter Hutchings, TCV Fundraising and Partnerships Manager, to share the story of this habitat-creating, biodiversity-increasing and team-strengthening CSR volunteering challenge…

The scene

Every year TCV welcomes nearly a thousand PwC staff and graduates to spend a day volunteering at one of our sites. Over the years the teams have made bird boxes, sown wildflower meadows, created pathways and new steps in green spaces across the UK.

PwC have genuinely been a massive help to TCV in our collective goal to improve outdoor spaces for the benefit of the environment and local communities.

Connecting people and green spaces is what we do.

PwC helping TCV at Waterlow Park (pre-pandemic).

The challenge

PwC’s firm-wide One Firm One Day volunteering event presented us with a challenge given the situation with the pandemic: How do we provide a flavour of TCV activity to hundreds of staff without them travelling and coming together to contribute and see our work first hand?

“This One Firm One Day has clearly been an exceptional year this year, due to the pandemic, and I’m glad that, together, we were able to find creative new ways of connecting PwC staff with our work.

PwC have been such a great help with managing and transforming green spaces over the years.  We’re looking forward to being able to welcome them back out into the great outdoors again sometime soon.”

Darren York – Chief Executive, The Conservation Volunteers

The plan

Together with the team at PwC we came up with a bespoke plan to bring a little bit of TCV to the homes of PwC staff, with our Grow At Home and Homes for Nature challenges.

We wanted to provide an engaging and accessible opportunity for staff to learn about food growing and creating habitats for wildlife. Whether that be some herbs on a windowsill, a veg patch in an allotment or a brand-new insect hotel. We wanted to create an opportunity for everyone, no matter where they are geographically or where they are at with their green-fingered knowledge.

Putting everything into action

TCV sent out over 500 packets of herbs and vegetable seeds direct to staff across the UK with growing guides and short webinars on how to sow, grow and care for their seeds – all prepared for them to tune-in on One Firm One Day.

Huge thank you to Freya and Alex at TCV Hollybush Conservation Centre in Leeds for leading the webinars, their infectious enthusiasm provided much-needed light relief during this challenging period. Over the pandemic, they have become quite the expert presenters, taking TCV engagement online during lockdown to keep our volunteers connected – If they don’t already have one they both need Blue Peter badges!

The Homes for Nature challenge also saw PwC staff take on the challenge of creating new habitats for nature with the chance to win a prize from TCV.

Participants tuned into a lunchtime webinar with Alex and Freya, who demonstrated the different ways to make insect hotels, which are fantastic ways of creating homes for all-important pollinators that are integral to a healthy biodiverse ecosystem.

The results and an all-important thank you

We had some fantastic results! Freya and Alex donned their best sparkly attire to announce the winners who each received bespoke handmade wood crafts from TCV Hollybush Wood Squad Project.

I just want to thank the hundreds of people who took part, feedback has been great and I hope people are enjoying the fruits of their labour. It is always a pleasure to work with PwC and I hope to see these wonderful people in person soon.

Take a look here for further ESG and CSR challenges from TCV and corporate partners.

Keep up to date with the latest news and activities from The Conservation Volunteers by signing up for our newsletter. You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, or head on over to our website for more.

I Dig Trees guest blog: Did you know, trout grow on trees?

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Together we continue to smash our tree planting targets for climate, wildlife and communities! But we have only just begun. This year we are going further than ever before with I Dig Trees: 2 million trees in the ground by the end of this tree planting season.

As the tree planting phenomenon continues, Prof Jonathan Grey of Wild Trout Trust tells us how the trees ordered through our #IDigTrees programme with OVO Energy are helping to bring habitats, food and shelter for local freshwater wildlife…

I like edges. Edges are where ecology happens…

They are dynamic, unpredictable…edgy even. As someone who has always been fascinated by the ecology of freshwaters, I have spent an inordinate amount of time with my back to the water.

I look out at the landscape, trying to understand how that influences what I find beneath the surface behind me. My view should be obscured by trees because, arguably, the ‘pristine state’ of most of our rivers and streams should be wooded right to the channel edge.

“…arguably, the ‘pristine state’ of most of our rivers and streams should be wooded right to the channel edge.”

Did you know, trout grow on trees?

Not literally of course, but directly and indirectly, trout grow from feeding on invertebrates that fed upon trees.

It could be via tiny aphids that have been sucking on a sycamore and haplessly fallen into the stream below in a sappy stupor. Or it might be more circuitously, via shrimps that have shredded and chomped upon the leaf litter tossed into the water on autumnal winds.

Energy arising from trees on land can be transferred via a plethora of ecological pathways to end up fuelling food webs underwater.

“trout grow from feeding on invertebrates that fed upon trees…”

But trees should give so much more to trout…

Our native species, the brown trout needs a mosaic of habitats to get through its life cycle: clean gravel in which to lay eggs, refuges from predators and flow for the weak swimming fry, shallow riffles of fast water as growing juvenile ‘parr’, and deeper pools as larger adults.

So, trout don’t live in trees, but trees should be contributing to that mosaic. Natural treefall into rivers diverts water flow over, under and around, thereby making faster, slower, shallower and deeper patches on the quilt of the riverbed.

Tree roots bind the bank soils together and twist into the water providing hidey-holes. Trailing branches trap flotsam creating cover and shade.

“Our native species, the brown trout needs a mosaic of habitats to get through its life cycle”

Source: Wild Trout Trust

The trout is a cold-adapted species…

Its eggs bake low-and-slow in river gravel over the winter months to hatch with the first flushes of spring and capitalise on unwary invertebrates.

Trees in the catchment should ‘slow-the-flow’, taking the sting out of winter floods that otherwise ravage our rivers and disturb the slumbering eggs.

Trees along the banks should keep our rivers cool in summer. The water temperature of shallow, narrow streams when exposed to direct sunlight can be almost 10oC warmer compared to beneath a leafy canopy, and that’s not good for trout nor anything else that needs oxygen from the surrounding water.

I’ve focussed on trout but trout are just a sentinel, a canary in a coalmine as it were. A healthy population of wild trout indicates a healthy, functional river, that should be home to their prey and their predators. And ‘should’ has crept up far too often in this post.

“…trout are just a sentinel, a canary in a coalmine as it were. A healthy population of wild trout indicates a healthy, functional river…”

That’s because far too many of our rivers are effectively bald!

If there are trees, they are generally standing tall but tired, a linear straggle of aging canopy, a fragile fringe only one-tree-deep. Succession has been nipped in the bud, quite literally, by browsing livestock.

Working part-time for the Wild Trout Trust, I meet with landowners, local communities, rivers trusts, government agencies and angling clubs to offer practical advice and guide hands-on habitat improvement projects.

In many instances, all rivers need is a good dose of trees, and I am delighted that The Conservation Volunteers recognise angling clubs as community groups and grants them access to the I Dig Trees programme.

“That’s because far too many of our rivers are effectively bald!”

The stereotypical view of a fly angler taking a fish for supper is thankfully fading…

Generally, such anglers don’t take at all but give instead; time, energy and money invested into improving habitat, restoring rivers, reporting pollution…generally working with and looking after rivers as a natural resource.

OK, I’m biased by my fetish for freshwater, but if you are going to plant trees anywhere, along rivers must bring about the biggest-bang-for-buck in terms of environmental benefits.

You can follow the development of some of my tree-planting partnership projects on Twitter.

Prof Jonathan Grey

We’d like to say a huge thanks to Prof Jonathan Grey and the Wild Trout Trust for contributing this guest blog.

The Conservation Volunteers has the ambition to plant 2 million trees with the help of community groups, corporate sponsors, and people like you. Are you in?

Keep up to date with the latest news and activities from The Conservation Volunteers by following us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, or head on over to our website for more.

WildSkills: kickstarting rewarding outdoor careers

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Meet the next generation of practical conservationists making an impact for wildlife, climate and communities.

The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) WildSkills programme is a traineeship, providing young people with barriers to employment a real opportunity to kick-start exciting and rewarding outdoor careers. This year, the programme is being supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery.

Trainees are immersed in environmental conservation sector roles, developing highly sought-after skills in three of TCV’s main workstreams; practical conservation, community engagement and increasing biodiversity.

TCV's next generation of practical conservationists
TCV’s practical conservationists beginning their journey towards successful outdoor careers.

The need for environmental conservation

We all depend on nature for food, water, and shelter. A healthy environment helps to control disease, sustain nutrient cycles and maintain oxygen production. It also provides us with opportunities for leisure, employment and recuperation, all of which can improve our overall health and well-being.

“Our economies, livelihoods and well-being all depend on our most precious asset: Nature.”

Source: The Dasgupta Review

And yet we are facing some *ahem* obstacles, to overcome together:

Biodiversity: “The health of the ecosystems on which we and other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.”

Robert Watson, Chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IBPES)

Climate: “The climate crisis represents a clear and present danger to people and our planet. Its real-world consequences are now all too visible.”

Alok Sharma, UK COP26 President

Whilst not forgetting…

Employment: “Young People Face Unemployment “Crisis” As 88% Of Job Losses Affect Under 35s”

Eleanor Langford, Political Reporter

So, the timing of these traineeships couldn’t be more crucial for the health of our ecosystems and the health of ourselves.

The WildSkills traineeships involve practical action taken at a local level.

Tree planting with TCV York
Tree planting with TCV York

Conservation career paths

It’s thanks to players of People’s Postcode Lottery that TCV is able to provide these groundbreaking (excuse the pun) opportunities for 16-29 year olds, who face some form of barrier to employment.

“My barriers to work have been health issues but this gives me a chance to gain some confidence and become used to working with people.”

Kate, Wildskills Trainee, Greater London

The WildSkills trainees will be immersed in a wide range of TCV activities, shadowing and supporting Senior Project Officers, whilst rolling their sleeves up and getting stuck in to develop valuable transferable skills to kickstart their outdoor careers:

  • Practical Conservation – habitat creation, path construction, invasive species removal and wildflower meadow creation.
  • Biodiversity – developing knowledge of local flora and fauna whilst improving habitats for these species, wildlife recording and citizen science projects.
  • Community Engagement – working with local communities, supporting events and marketing and gaining real experience of delivering sessions.

“I’m looking forward to leading volunteer groups. I like working with teams, and being able to share with others how they can do their bit to protect and enhance their local nature reserve is really exciting.”

Elliott, TCV WildSkills Trainee, South East London

Trainees develop valuable transferable skills to kickstart their outdoor careers

Participants will each have individual training plans and, where there’s a need, TCV will support trainees to develop skills in literacy, numeracy, ICT, communications, interpersonal, and public relations.

Once their traineeships are completed, they will have the expertise, experience, and confidence to move on to interviews and jobs either within TCV or with other committed environmental conservation organisations, such as CPRE, The Wildlife Trusts, The Woodland Trust, RSPB, The National Trust and others.

The WildSkills traineeships involve practical action taken at a local level.
“The WildSkills traineeships involve practical action taken at a local level.”

So, who are TCV’s WildSkills 2021 trainees?

TCV WildSkills trainees from Yorkshire & London

Our next generation of environmental heroes and conservationists are based in Yorkshire and London, undertaking a variety of exciting projects.

Already the trainees have got stuck into planting trees, which is a big focus of TCV, to combat climate change and facilitate local communities to make their difference.

As well as the practical tasks, our trainees are looking forward to learning specific skills to land them their dream job in the environmental sector…

“I’ve always been fascinated by nature, and I want to play a part in protecting and enhancing it.

“TCV’s traineeship gives me an opportunity to get structured, practical experience in urban conservation. The programme over the year is jam packed with practical habitat management, workshops with wildlife experts, and sessions with the public.”

Elliott, TCV WildSkills Trainee, South East London

TCV WildSkills trainees at TCV Stave Hill and TCV Dulwich Upper Wood
TCV WildSkills trainees at TCV Stave Hill and TCV Dulwich Upper Wood

Elliot is interested in UK biodiversity and hopes to develop knowledge of UK fauna; doing deep dives on native invertebrates, amphibians and birds, how they interact with local ecosystems and what we can do to help them thrive in London.

Elliot sums up his drive for applying to WildSkills and his future goals: “The public mood on the climate and biodiversity crises is changing, and I think conservationists – and others in the environmental movement – need to capitalise on community support and advocate for more ambitious responses to these challenges. I’d love to combine my practical urban conservation experience at TCV with my policy experience as a civil servant to push for more ambitious and connected ecosystem recovery across the UK. I’m so grateful to be getting a solid foundation in practical conservation from the WildSkills traineeship to help lay the foundations for that goal.”

“I have already learnt a lot in the short time I have been here. I hope to gain more knowledge of native wildlife and plants on the job as well as gain inspiration from my practical work to bring to my personal artwork.”

Kate, TCV WildSkills Trainee, Greater London

Applying to WildSkills for an introduction to the world of ecological management, Kate has an ambition to gain an ecology-based job and would love to work at the Natural History Museum. Kate had easy access to parks and green spaces growing up, which encouraged a love of nature and being outdoors. This led to studying geography, focusing on the physical and environmental aspects. Kate wants to further understand what kind of habitats encourage certain species to live there and how a range of habitats are managed during their time with TCV, then go on to employment in ecology.

Kate will enjoy working with volunteers, “Giving local people a sense of accomplishment when they come and do jobs at TCV sites.”

Learning at Lesnes Abbey Wood and during a Lichen workshop at TCV Greenwich Peninsula Ecology Park
Trainees learning at Lesnes Abbey Wood and during a Lichen workshop at
TCV Greenwich Peninsula Ecology Park

Kayley has already been a regular volunteer with TCV since 2017, as well as with other organisations, to get practical experience and develop her understanding of different habitats with the aim to get into the Conservation sector. With a BSc in Zoology too, Kayley is looking to develop niche skills, such as dry-stone walling, and an increased range of practical skills she has not yet come across, for example, big-scale residential projects and reed planting. Using opportunities in Citizen Science, she’d like to improve her ID skills on birds, insects and trees.

Kayley is also keen to take advantage of networking opportunities in the industry and speak to like-minded people. A big part of the traineeship is developing local community engagement and Kayley hopes to improve these ‘people’ skills, which we know are important for employment.

Kayley has also started to add to the 50 million trees ambition across Northern England as part of the collaborative Northern Forest Project.

Eva and Rebecca are part of the team planting 19,000 trees to create woodland areas on a former colliery spoil heap in Rossington.

Developing personal skills is also a goal for Rebecca, who is looking forward to attending the leadership courses to enable her to competently lead and manage groups by the end of her traineeship. She is also keen to understand how to plan and deliver education events.

As well as improving skills in wildlife identification, especially in botany, Eva would like to gain licenses to use tools often required in practical conservation and get an insight into project planning. Her traineeship will complement the knowledge she is gaining through completing a Masters degree in Biodiversity and Conservation.

TCV supports trainees to develop skills in literacy, numeracy, ICT, communications, interpersonal, and public relations
TCV supports trainees to develop skills in literacy, numeracy, ICT, communications, interpersonal, and public relations to boost outdoor career prospects.

“It’s been a real confidence booster to be accepted onto this traineeship and I’m really pushing myself to be my best I can be.

“I get to do what I love every day”

Jozef, TCV WildSkills Trainee, London

After volunteering, putting on his own workshops, teaching in schools, setting up teaching blogs to inspire others, Jozef is full of ideas and energy to work full time in nature.

He also wants to teach people things that he finds interesting throughout his traineeship and has been documenting his time with his brilliant drawings. Jozef finds reading and taking in information in a traditional way difficult and wants his drawings to make the information he is sharing accessible to others who prefer learning visually. He also hopes that our readers will be entertained while they learn!

“Me and my co-trainees are getting on really well … I feel like we’re already really good mates. We all have different strengths and help each other out when we can. I feel really lucky and supported … I’ve got so many ideas and lots of energy to take full advantage of this year”

Jozef's illustrations as a TCV WildSkill trainee
Some of Jozef’s fantastic illustrations. Click here to see more.

What our young conservationists do in their spare time

From Jozef’s drawings above to Rebecca’s love of houseplants (as a proud owner of 30! Her favourites being her Maranta leuconeura and bonsai trees), TCV’s WildSkills trainees have a varied range of hobbies and interests outside of the (outdoor) classroom.

Kate is a fan of art and loves prog and metal music. Music has always been a big part of Rebecca’s life with a grade 8 in singing and flute and is currently teaching herself how to play piano.

Kate's art as a TCV WildSkill trainee
Kate’s art, including a common frog and newt for Frog Day at
Greenwich Ecology Peninsula Park

As well as learning about wildlife, Jozef enjoys woodworking, old punk music and skateboarding.

Eva demonstrates her creative spirit:

“I taught myself how to embroider in the first lockdown and have been upcycling clothes and creating (often nature-inspired) designs ever since. I have a definite arty side, and this is currently my chosen creative outlet.

“I absolutely love to cook but hate following recipes. Almost everything I make is completely freestyled, but it seems to work out best for me that way. I love taking a standard meal and reinventing it, whether that is making it vegetarian or giving it a new spin from another type of cuisine.”

Kayley likes to get stuck into anything she can! Her hobbies include tennis, horse riding, biking and she used to competitively swim for North Lincolnshire. Read Kayley’s blog here: Let loose on your WILD side

The conservation chronicles…

Watch this space for further WildSkills updates!

We’ll be featuring blog entries to show what the trainees have been achieving – for themselves, their community and for the environment.

Keep up to date with the latest news and activities from The Conservation Volunteers by following us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, or head on over to our website for more.