Since the start of the Geopark project, people from in and around Charnwood Forest have given their time to support our work – both through our partner organisations and with the Geopark directly. There has been an extraordinary range of activities, all of which help to grow the Geopark’s impact. Take a look at our volunteering summary by numbers to see what’s been achieved!
1800 hours of grassland management
212 days of woodland management at the Outwoods and Beacon Hill
£540 worth of tree planting time
400 hours of geoconservation
4,000 hours of wildlife recording
15 days of litter picking
£5000 worth of dry stone walling
124 hours of historical research for exhibitions and schools programmes
20 days of photography, film and interviews
87 hours of public and schools engagement with charcoal-making
Over £1000 worth of events and arts engagement
34 hours of supporting guided walks
82 days of developing new walking trails
44 days to support new and existing groups who needed more volunteers
175 hours of supporting learning
32 hours of Charnwood spider surveying
45 days of bird-ringing
To date, we have counted 10,017 hours and 30 mins (roughly 1,336 days) of time donated to us, worth a total of £190,000.
Besides the ‘countable’ aspects of our volunteers’ contributions, we have seen friendships being made over cups of tea and a biscuit, the confidence of new volunteers growing as they learn new skills, and people exploring and looking after places in the Geopark they wouldn’t have otherwise gone to know.
The Geopark team extends a huge thank you to everyone who has given us their time, no matter if it was one hour or 100 hours. We could not achieve so much without the ongoing support of our volunteers and the teams that co-ordinate and promote volunteering with us. Want to get involved? Find out more here.