We met on a beautiful warm evening to help Blackbrook Environmental Enterprise (BEE) with a local woodland which has not had the usual loving touch of conservation volunteers because of lockdown.

We welcomed Rita to her first Sheffield Goodgym task who usually is part of Goodgym groups in London. We were also welcoming Charly who moved to Sheffield just before lockdown from Bristol. Charly’s first Goodgym activity (at Lynwood Gardens) got cancelled because lockdown hit, and so this was the first thing that she has been able to do with us. Really nice to welcome new people!

The project manager, woodman Will, met us at the task and explained how he’s been managing the woodland for biodiversity through selective thinning of trees and weeding out plants that will take over, mainly bracken and bramble. The trees that are thinned are used for a local firewood business.

We set to work plucking out bracken to help stop it spreading and cutting back bramble. We helped each other with plant ID to get the right weeds out and worked through a patch of the shady woodland.

It was so nice to come together as a group and see people in real life that we’d not seen for a few months although in Sheffield you can’t help but bump into folk! So there was lots of obligatory chat, planning and scheming.

After about 45 minutes, we’d made a real impact on the woodland and a few of us took a swim in Rivelin plunge pool next door to cool off and ease our nettle stings.

Thanks for coming everyone!