Members of the Air Leadership Team from QinetiQ recently spent a day at Landford Bog, one of Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s nature reserves in South Wiltshire on the edge of the New Forest and a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

They spent the day volunteering by helping to ‘re-wet’ Landford Bog. QinetiQ has a Net Zero commitment, becoming carbon neutral by 2030, so they were delighted to be involved. It proved to be hard but very rewarding, educational work and opened the possibility of an enduring relationship between QinetiQ and Wiltshire Wildlife Trust.

Chris Daykin, Chief of Staff Air Test & Evaluation from QinetiQ, tells us about the team’s experience at Landford Bog:

“Let’s be honest, with the busy day jobs we all have, and despite everyone seeing the clear and tangible benefits of focusing on the environment, sustainability and our organisational Net Zero plans, there is always the risk of delaying any initiative, especially during the busy Q4 period. How wrong that would be, as five members of the Air Leadership Team discovered by spending the day volunteering at Landford Bog.

Most of the day was spent ‘re-wetting’ an area of the bog, where a number of trees had recently been cut down, using them to build a number of natural dams. “So, how can cutting down trees help the environment?” The Team soon found out.

Since the Middle Ages, most of Wiltshire’s original bog area has been lost to housing or farmland. The reason the bog is a SSSI is that it is a natural refuge for rare plants, such as purple moor grass, sundew and butterwort. It also provides a home to raft spiders, tiger beetles and rare dragonflies. 

Apart from human threats to the bog, nature also poses dangers. The bog is maintained by a small stream that keeps the land wet. If too many trees encroach on the bog, they would absorb the water, which would dry it out. However, if the stream runs too fast it can divert the water away from the bog, exacerbating the drying out.

As well as the risk of killing off the rare plants and wildlife, the seven-hectare bog stores huge amounts of CO₂ which, if it were to dry out, would be released into the atmosphere. By carefully selecting the right trees to cut down, and then using them to make a series of natural dams to slow and spread the water, the bog can be preserved year-on-year.

Timing is critical though. March was the latest time to do the work, partly due to the increasing temperatures in the spring and partly because of the upcoming nesting season for much of the local wildlife.

Feeling slightly humbled by our lack of knowledge (most of the team would probably class themselves as ‘Townies’!), and after a safety brief from Alex from Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, the team set about the tasks they had been given. The bulk of the work involved moving small tree trunks and large logs and then, with Alex’s oversight and instructions, we also used some of the peat to make a series of natural damns across the bog.  In addition, there were considerable amounts of branches that needed clearing away.

As the day progressed, all members commented on the wellbeing benefits of doing some quite physical activity out in the fresh spring air. At the end of the day, Alex was delighted and, we sensed, a little surprised, with what had been achieved – so there was a bit of ‘Team QinetiQ’ pride. It was great to see water from the stream gradually spreading out across the bog from the dams that were constructed.

The team were ‘as one’ the following morning: they all had aches and pains from muscles they never knew they had!”

If you’re interested to learn more about opportunities for Corporate Volunteering days, then please get in touch with Luke Maundrell, Fundraising Manager for Wiltshire Wildlife Trust: lukem@wiltshirewildlife.org