GCV tend to trees at St Germain nature reserve
ST GERMAIN nature reserve is being well looked after by Guernsey Conservation Volunteers.
At the weekend, group co-ordinator Angela Salmon and her team removed tree guards from the young trees and cut the vegetation around each tree to reduce the competition of any other vegetation.
‘It’s important to remove tree guards because the trees are big enough that they don’t need the protection anymore, so it’s always good to get them off before the guard becomes part of the tree,’ said Ms Salmon.
‘If you leave the guards on for too long, the plastic starts to break down and you get lots of small plastic pieces in the environment which is not what we want at all.’
Plastic guards can be removed from trees upwards of three years old, providing they are strong enough.
The mixture of native trees at St Germain were planted in 2012 and support the wildlife in the area.
‘This is a new site for us to work at, we haven’t done any of this tree work before but it’s a lovely site up here,’ said Ms Salmon.
Between 15 and 20 volunteers were joined by several members of staff from Guernsey Finance, who have recently committed to a green office plan.
‘It’s really great to come here because they do some amazing work and there’s lots to learn,’ said Stephanie Glover, green finance manager at Guernsey Finance.
‘It’s a lovely Saturday morning activity and it’s helpful to experience the environmental side as well as the finance side.’
The St Germain plot was quarried for stone until the 1940s and was used as a landfill site for inert waste during the 1990s.
In 1996 it was covered and has since been managed by ACLMS. GCV was working on a different area of the site on Wednesday, removing a dominant plant Winter Heliotrope from the slope where the Bee Orchids grow.
GCV work on a variety of different sites every Wednesday morning and every other Saturday morning.
Anyone can help. More information available on social media or at gcv.org.uk.
