The first of four focus weeks was spent helping a voluntary organisation BTCV.
BTCV is a conservation group with some 130000 voluntary members and is part of the London Heathland Heritage Project.
Myself and some friends thought what better way to learn about what conservation is really all about, other than getting our hands dirty and volunteering.
The job we volunteered for was quite an education in how the few remaining Heathland habitats were maintained. Cutting and chopping a small group of us cleared overgrown plants and weeds which would eventually overgrow the Heather and destroy the Heathlands Habitat.
Hounslow Heath was the target for the BTCV groups work on my week of volunteering, it is one of the few London Heaths to remain today and without maintaining would eventually evolve into a different kind of habitat, leaving a number of species without a home.
The experience has shown me that taking the surrounding landscape that we live in for granted will eventually lead to its destruction and all it takes to maintain is a little hard work.
