Meet Aber’s heroic Conservation Volunteers

We love our beaches, the sea, the woods and hills that make our little seaside town the perfect place for people that love the outdoors, pretty sunsets and landscapes.

Aber Conservation Volunteers are the award-winning volunteering stars of Aberystwyth’s vast outdoor community who ensure Aber will stay as lovely as it is now for future students. They are also one of our uni’s oldest societies, dating back to the 1960s.

It’s not all scrub clearance when one of Aber’s oldest societies is on the road. When they don’t take care of the local primary school kids or set Pen Dinas on fire, the volunteers lay hedges, build footpaths, or maintain their garden on campus.

Sebastian, third year Ecology and Lizzie, third year Countryside Conservation students are committee members of the heroic bunch of people that care about the Welsh environment more than the average student.

Most of us have seen the wildlife garden that ACV is maintaining on campus right by Trefloyne. But ACV is about more than simply maintaining a garden. Lizzie told us: “The main things that we do is the task every Saturday. So every Saturday of the semester we go out around the local area and we do conservation related tasks.”

Sebastian adds: “One thing we do is gorse burning to create a fire block on Pen Dinas. If you see Consti or Pen Dinas on fire, that’s probably us. Yes, it’s true. We set Pen Dinas on fire sometimes. In a controlled manner, obviously.”

Lizzie explains: “Gauze is an invasive species, so you have to get rid of it. It’s really good for some wildlife, but you want to get rid of little patches. You don’t want it all to be all gauze and the best way to get rid of it is to just burn it.

“The guy that’s doing it with us is just amazing. The other day we were up in Penglais woods, and it was pouring with rain. And the guy can get a fire going in any condition.”

Gorse burning at Pen Dinas

Local organisations work closely with the keen volunteers, explains Lizzie: “Lots of organisations approach us, because we’ve been working with them for so many years now. We’re basically good for them as well. Not only are we a group of ten or eleven that go, we’re just free labour as well.”

When asked about what drives their passion, Sebastian says: “We have worked with Denmark farm recently. We have planted an orchard. We won’t be in Aber to see it grow. It will take about five years to see results and fruit comes out.

“It’s about making sure that these projects are supported and that also students get involved with it as well. What we also want people to know is that what they’re doing today might not make a difference. But in five year’s time, in ten year’s time they can actually come back and enjoy that landscape.

“It’s all about sustainability. And also, to learn about new skills. When doing Countryside management you learn how to lay a hedge, but you never actually do it yourself. You can apply the theories you’ve learnt in lectures to practices. That’s really useful. But maybe you’ve never done anything like that before. Maybe you’re an English student and have never worked outside before. A lot of people join us and find it really quite fulfilling and rewarding.”

Bramble clearing at Borth beach

Lizzie added: “You don’t have to be doing a wildlife course to enjoy the wider countryside. Just have to have an interest in it. Until I started I didn’t know how to do anything. I can remember the first time I came along and they said ‘right go along and chop down that tree and I was like I have no idea how you actually chop down a tree’ Somebody showed me how to do it.”

Wednesday garden sessions and Saturday tasks aren’t for everyone, but both committee members agree that there is one thing that every student can and should work on.

Lizzie said: “I think recycling is really important. I think it’s so easy for people to do and yet there’s not that many that put their waste in the right bin.”

Sebastian added:  “It’s difficult to say what everyone should do in terms of actually aiding conservation. Conservation is about improving. Not littering is about not degrading the environment. So they’re on the same side of a coin, but a bit different. Plant flowers, grow your own vegetables, that’s how you can aid conservation.”

Photo credits: Will Mason-jones and Edward Laxton