Over recent years we have taken several steps to encourage people to take part in Conservation Fieldwork events. These include developing new projects in different locations, linking these projects directly to bird conservation and organising walks in the area so that people can combine an hour or two of conservation work with watching the birds. We have also tried a number of different ways of communicating about these projects including individual emails, local radio announcements and conference presentations. However, with the exception of Charleston Reedbeds, very few people turn up to these events. The problem is that people in the organisations we work for often give up a day from their precious weekends for very little return.

At a recent SOS Council meeting our conclusion was that contributing to conservation fieldwork in this way is not what most of our members want to do. As a result, from 2010, we will no longer organise SOS conservation fieldwork events.

Each of the organisations have their own volunteer groups which contribute regularly to conservation field work on that particular reserve. What we will do is advertise these opportunities by putting on the SOS website a list of the Sussex volunteer groups we know about. You can access the current list by clicking here, and there is also a new link to the list at the bottom of the menu to the right.

If you organise or know of a local volunteer group which you would like to see included on the website – or if you want non-electronic information on these opportunities - please contact Sue Walsh on 01273 329972 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Sue Walsh (Conservation Field Officer).