Our York team volunteered with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust at Wheldrake Ings Nature Reserve, braving the elements for World Wetlands Day, removing sapling trees from the wetland as part of the habitat management.

The volunteers enjoyed learning about the wetland and the importance of its management to maintain the habitats for the species that use them and attended a bird ringing demonstration.

The reserve is located along the floodplain of the Lower Derwent Valley. The habitats present are wetland in the autumn and winter, and lowland meadow and pasture in the spring and summer. The reserve supports a high diversity of meadow plant and invertebrate species, as well as a wide variety of birds. In spring and summer, nesting waders raise their young in the grassland and in the autumn, the meadows flood and attract thousands of ducks, geese and waders.