11 October 2022
On 29 September 2022, seven volunteers from the Gleeson Land team visited The Ernest Cook Trust at their head office in Fairford to help support the Trust’s Communities Programme. The Ernest Cook Trust is a national education charity that supports Outdoor Learning by funding other charities and organisations and by having Outdoor Learning Officers on its own and its partners’ land.
Gleeson were extremely happy to volunteer for this worthwhile cause and spend the day with the Trust carrying out some woodland management activities as part of the Trust’s continued work to provide a natural wooded learning space for community use on their estate in Fairford. After a short briefing and grounding exercise the team set to work stripping ivy from trees, collecting and sawing logs to create new hibernacula, locating straight logs for use as path edging (to assist with visually impaired users), and some general clearance works. The day ended with a challenge organised by the Trust which saw two teams (team technical vs. team land and planning) go head-to-head to see who could be the first to light a fire by traditional means, boil a storm kettle, make some hot chocolate, and toast some marshmallows on the open fire. It was incredibly competitive which saw team technical execute a well-made plan and take the honours ahead of team land and planning.
It was a great opportunity for the team to give something back and to spend some valuable time with nature and we are grateful to The Ernest Cook Trust for providing us with this opportunity.
