Shields continues to invest in our Community Programme, which our partner Business In The Community helps to shape to maximize our positive impact on our environment and education.
One beneficiary within our community program is the RSBP, who we have been working with for years to help them towards conserving British wildlife and a healthy environment we can all enjoy.
Year on year we learn about how our donation has impacted the RSBP; for example, last year a new stone burier machine and a Combination Brushcutter were introduced to the Rainham Marshes which allows staff to remove rocks and vegetation at a quick pace. This is needed for the management of the reserve as they constantly need to create new breeding areas for the wildlife, and channels need to be manually cut in order to create openings to be used as feeding edge habitat.
This year, our donation of £3,000 will allow a team of contractors to be brought on board to clear areas of Flowering rush from in front of the hides in two of their bird scrape areas. Flowering rush is a native plant but it has become very invasive at the Rainham Marshes, and has taken away much of the bare mud habitat that wading birds love. The contractors will be using a long reach digger with a cutting bucket known as a Bradshaw bucket, (click here to see how it works).
Stay tuned here to see what other weird and wonderful ways we help the RSPB on their conservation mission… And if you’d like to see the work for yourself, visit Rainham Marshes!