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Caring for Eden
Exploring Eden
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Exploring Eden

Volunteer Celebration Day

18/02/2024

We held a very special event to celebrate the work of our wonderful volunteer team.

ERT staff member and volunteer sitting on a wooden bench made as part of a woodland skills session provided at the ERT volunteer celebration day.

It was an opportunity to say a huge thank you for the time donated and the hard graft put in to help us care for the rivers, wildlife and special landscape of the Eden catchment.

Horse riding (the shaving horse variety), fire eating (the apple fritter variety), bench making and mallet shaping were the order of the day. Exhausting, but we’d expect nothing less of our volunteers and we did provide plenty of opportunities for a bit of hammock testing for those feeling the pace!

A big thank you to Dave Corrie for providing us with such expert tuition in green woodworking on the day and to Branch Out Education for hosting us. We’re rather proud of the three benches we created which were very well received by volunteers back at our Eden Community Tree Nursery in Penrith.

We know there are lots of reasons why people choose to help Eden Rivers Trust but when we get together on days like this, it is all about friendships and a shared desire to care for the places we love. The pictures say it all! 😊

  • Volunteers sawing sections from the feet of a wooden bench to ensure that they are level.
  • Volunteers posing for a photograph blowing wooden whistles made during a woodland skills teaching session.
  • Volunteers using a spirit level on a newly constructed wooden bench to ensure that its legs are level.
  • A volunteer lying on a newly built wooden bench.
  • Volunteers and ERT staff sat around a firepit cooking marshmallows on wooden sticks.
  • ERT staff member using a shaving horse in the construction of a wooden bench.
  • A volunteer works on the legs of an upturned wooden bench to get them level.
  • Volunteer and ERT staff member adding kindling to a metal fire pot.
  • Volunteers walking through a willow archway.
  • Close up of a tool being used to shave the legs of a wooden bench, tapering them to slot into the bench top.
  • Volunteers sat around a firepit cooking marshmallows on wooden sticks.

Volunteering with Eden Rivers Trust

If you’re interested in volunteering with us, please contact our Volunteer and Community Engagement Coordinator by visiting www.edenriverstrust.org.uk/volunteer calling 01768 866788, or emailing mailto:[email protected]

Training is provided and there is always someone on hand to show you the ropes, whatever you turn your hand to:

  • Cleaning up rivers
  • Bashing Himalayan balsam
  • Planting trees or wetland plant species
  • Surveying endangered species such as White-clawed crayfish
  • Helping us to monitor invertebrates, such as riverflies.
  • Helping us with events running throughout the year

Our volunteer activities are supported by the Access to Eden: breaking barriers, building bridges partnership project led by Eden Rivers Trust with a grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

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