25 years on the frontline of nature conservation
TONNES of sour fig, uncovering a bomb, finding stolen jewellery, and even two marriages, have been some of the most memorable moments in the 25-year history of the Guernsey Conservation Volunteers.
The group got together at the weekend to celebrate its 25th birthday and reflect on all those successes.
Group coordinator Angela Salmon said that seeing the results of maintaining and enhancing the island’s natural environment was very fulfilling.
‘A highlight is definitely Fort Pezeries and all the fig that we removed there. That’s a fantastic site now, when you go back and see all the native flowers coming back and all the insects, that gives me a huge amount of pleasure when I see that,’ she said.
‘Another highlight now is that we’ve got lots of lots of members, and that means we can get more work done.
‘We are a really small charity and I think over the years there have been a couple of occasions when it could have folded, so it’s wonderful to be celebrating 25 years.’
Past and current members of the charity were at the party and the room was filled with display boards of old photos and clippings of many Guernsey Press articles reporting on its work since the launch in 1996.
Mrs Salmon recounted one experience from 2013 when they were working on the Marais Rise reed bed near the Red Lion.
‘There was loads of flytipping, loads of rubbish from all over place, and we were clearing an area that we hadn’t cleared before and the Duke of Edinburgh students from Elizabeth College found a black rucksack.
‘I was expecting it to contain something grim because we’d found such awful stuff on that site, and we opened it up and it contained lots and lots of jewellery.
‘We phoned the police straight away, and it turned out the jewellery had probably been there for nine years, just thrown into the undergrowth after a burglary, and the police gave it back to the owners, and the picture of the happy owners made it onto the front page of the Press.’
It turns out that love can also blossom while wearing old clothes and sturdy wellies in the rain, because the charity has notched up two weddings with volunteers who have met on-site.
‘Two so far, but there may be more in the future’, added Mrs Salmon, explaining that you never know who you are going to meet, and that they all share a common interest in nature.
Deputy Simon Fairclough started up the GCV when he was a young man working in an environment role at the former Board of Administration. He said politicians were often ‘lots of words and very little action’, and the reason why he liked the GCV was that it was the polar opposite.
‘They just get on with things and get on with it on the frontline of nature conservation in Guernsey, and they continue to do a fabulous job.’
