I began volunteering at Dancersend in April 2012, joining a friendly and dedicated group of volunteers under the expert leadership of Mick Jones and Judi Fisher. It was a chance to help local wildlife while having a welcome change from my office job and rediscovering the camaraderie I enjoyed in my university conservation group.

Soon I was a regular, attending eight or nine monthly work parties each year. I settled into the reserve’s seasonal routine: coppicing and scrub clearance in winter, ragwort pulling and path maintenance in summer, with occasional tasks such as collecting seeds and hedgelaying.

Sometimes Mick would guide us around the reserve pointing out interesting species, and his presentations at our biannual meetings were full of his discoveries, from fungi to fossils. We worked in almost all weathers - the only time a work party was cancelled was when the local roads were blocked by a large fall of snow. 

So the coppicing session of January 2020 felt like the start of yet another busy year of volunteering. The next month, I decided not to attend in the bad weather ensuing from the previous day’s Storm Dennis, the work party having been postponed by Storm Ciara the week before. Then came the first lockdown, and Dancersend might as well have been on the other side of the world. 

When the work parties resumed, we were not allowed to share cars and tools. Having neither, my volunteering was limited to picking litter and clearing paths in my home town.

After I had my Covid vaccinations, my arm muscles became prone to strains and I didn’t feel up to hard physical work until last autumn. Then I decided it was time to return, but a combination of bad weather and a lack of transport meant I couldn’t make it until February. That seemed appropriate, as my last visit had been in January - it was time to pick up where I left off. 

On a cloudy Sunday morning I got a lift from my nature-watching friend and BBOWT Volunteer Award winner Richard Tomlin to the once-familiar car park. We joined a stream of volunteers on the path through the wood, lined with sprouting bluebell leaves, down the scrub mosaic of Anthill to the Meadow Plots. As over 20 of us gathered for Judi’s safety talk, I felt I had come home. 

We worked across the meadow, under a golden haze of catkins, to carry out Mick’s carefully planned programme of scrub thinning. I decided to ease myself back into the work by lopping thin stems of dogwood, later using a bowsaw for larger trunks. It was a simple task, but good exercise for muscles I’d forgotten I had.

When we paused for biscuits and lunch, I chatted to some of the others - those who had joined since my last visit, people who remembered my name even though I’d forgotten theirs, and some who couldn’t believe how long I’d been away.

To avoid overexertion, I left soon after lunch, midway through the task of widening a path that Mick had given me. Back at the top of Anthill I paused to gaze towards Ivinghoe Beacon, beyond the smoke rising from the bonfire, and was glad to be back.

Hannah Welby, Volunteer at Dancersend

If you've not returned to your pre-Covid volunteer group, do get in touch with us to discuss how you can get involved with volunteering again. We'd love to see you back!