Wilder Horsham District volunteers – a force for good

Working closely with local communities and landowners, the partnership aims to reverse the decline in species and habitats and enrich the natural environment for all residents and visitors. Through our wonderful volunteer workforce, we have been able to hugely increase the scale and impact of our work in Horsham District.

Work party volunteering

Our team of volunteers help us carry out vital conservation tasks on privately or publicly owned land. The work is varied, sessions have involved tasks such as seeding and maintaining wildflower meadows, clearing invasive species, creating ponds, building leaky dams, and improving hedgerows.

With explosive seed cases it can spread widely but the plant itself only lives for a year and its seeds are only viable for two years, so physically clearing it before it sets seed can eradicate it in an area in just a few seasons. But this is challenging and requires great effort. Every plant produces thousands of seeds, if you miss just one, it can very quickly reseed and re-establish, which is why it is such a problem.

Wilder Horsham District started Himalayan Balsam removal at this site in 2022 and returned this year as part of a wider effort with other conservation groups in the area (including Sussex Wildlife Trust’s Storrington and Arun Valley group, and Horsham Green Gym) to tackle the problem along the Upper Arun River.

Landowner, Nicola said:

“Wilder Horsham District are great; we have ambitious plans at the site and are keen to share with others what has been done and what is possible.  We have worked with our neighbours getting permission to extend the work, so the positive action is extending to a larger reach.”

We could never complete the volume of work we do without them - our volunteers significantly multiply the on-the-ground impact the project is able to have, and so are an essential and invaluable part of delivering a Nature Recovery Network in Horsham District.

“We can’t thank all 76 of them enough!”

A message to landowners

If you are a landowner, land manager or community group in Horsham District and interested in helping wildlife and habitats to recover on your land, we’d love to hear from you too. Please complete the Landowner Contact Form on the Sussex  Wildlife Trust website so we can see how we can support you.

How do I become a volunteer?

If anyone is interested in volunteering, we’d love to welcome them into the team. No experience necessary! Simply reach out to swtvolunteering@sussexwt.org.uk to find out more and sign up.