10/11/25 - Autumn work programme

If you’re interested in what our team have been up to across the NNR recently please read on to find out – we honestly couldn’t manage without our fantastic team of volunteers, who help us day in, day out, to manage the four National Nature Reserves across our area. If you’re reading this and are thinking you might also like to lend a hand, please feel free get in touch for more details – our team is made up of a mix of all ages and all abilities, all with the same thing in common – a love for nature and the outdoors. If this appeals to you and you'd like to mix with like-minded people to help manage a National Nature Reserve, we’d love to hear from you.

🍂 Autumn Action Across the Valley & Common 🍂

With the winter floods edging ever closer, our brilliant team of volunteers have been making the most of the dry autumn weather — each week feeling like a gift, allowing us to tick off more vital habitat management tasks across the reserves.

So, what’s been keeping us busy?

🧹 Scrub Clearance for Waders

Across the Lower Derwent Valley, we’ve been focusing on removing willow scrub from key meadow areas. These open habitats are essential for red and amber-listed wading birds like Curlew and Snipe, who rely on clear sightlines to spot danger while nesting in spring and summer. Thanks to our volunteers — armed with loppers and bowsaws — these meadows are kept open and ready to welcome back our breeding birds.

🪵 Out with the Old Fencing

Redundant fencing has also been removed. Not only can it interfere with machinery, but the old posts offer perfect perches for crows — a threat to ground-nesting birds. By clearing these out, we’re giving Curlew and Snipe a safer space to raise their young.

🌱 Birch Clearance at Skipwith Common

Meanwhile, at Skipwith Common, work continues to clear young birch from a ditch — allowing light to reach the food plant of the orange tip butterfly. Come spring, this same ditch will be alive with fluttering wings and buzzing life, all thanks to the efforts of our volunteers.

🌳 Creating Glades for Invertebrates & Nightjars

We’ve also been cutting glades into the birch rows, helping invertebrates move more freely between habitat blocks. This connectivity is key — not just for moths, but for the Nightjars that spend their summers here, hunting across the heath.

🙏 A Huge Thank You

This is just a snapshot of the incredible work our volunteers have done over the past few months. Their dedication makes all the difference — without them, the wildlife we treasure simply wouldn’t thrive in the same way. Here’s to every bow saw wielded, every fence post pulled, and every moment spent making space for nature.