Ben joined Heaton Mersey Village Conservation Group with a taskforce kind of day down by the river. There were lots of other helpers, including corporate volunteers from Manchester Airport and other engineering companies plus several local residents and members (there are >380!) of the conservation group too.

The conservation group look after 33-ish acres of land around Heaton Mersey alongside the council, and today we were doing some work near Burnage Rugby Club on the river bank. Jo and Janette (?) were in charge.

Before getting started, we had a health & safety briefing and introduced to Mark, one of the Burnage Rugby Club owners, who could provide teas & coffees, bacon butties, or a combination of the two. We were all decked out in high viz and gloves, ready to take on the forthcoming tasks.

Darrell from the council provided a whole host of equipment including spades, litter pickers & bags, loppers, choppers, balsam bashing tools (they looked cool), plus several wheelbarrows to actually carry the items to the work site.

As a large group, we were split into two:

• A group to litter pick and balsam bash
• A group to clear the area near a wild pond

I joined the latter, wanting to help clear the weeds, grass, and overgrown brambles for people to enjoy the picnic benches and to access the pond boardwalk and information post. Little did I know how big a task it would be... Beyond the board walk was a WALL OF BRAMBLES that apparently used to be a path! Our mission was to clear this to make a path to the parallel one through the area. With lots and lots of chopping, lopping, clearing, raking, and strimming of the brambles, nettles, blackthorn, all while dodging a bee's nest, we managed to successfully clear a path that can now be used by the general public.

Alas, I didn't get a before shot... and my legs are somewhat stung and cut up due to the low hanging brambles... but it was a fantastic 3 hours with a proactive group of volunteers and look forward to helping out next time. I also missed out on the lunch as I had to get back into the lab to finish a Western blot and add some drugs to cells. Productive day all round.