THIS week I visited Fiona Longbottom, who works at the Mere Sands Wood Nature Reserve, near Rufford.

I have made several visits to the area, run by the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, but this was something special.

Fiona is working in conjunction with St Helens College, offering courses in Environmental Conservation. This can lead to nationally recognised courses related to the City and Guilds. The subjects studied includes fencing, dry stone walling, brashing, coppicing and pollarding, woodland management and wildlife habitats. The course is offered on a flexible timetable of 16 hours per week and anyone at present unemployed or who would like to join as a volunteer without studying formally may do so. Further information can be obtained from Fiona Longbottom on 01704 821809 or Karl Appleton on 01925 220451.

I arrived to find Fiona putting the enthusiastic students, many of them mature and experienced, through their paces.

The sound of posts being driven into the ground, bird boxes being cleaned out ready for next season and new footpaths being laid out was impressive.

Courses such as this are very much a feature of the 1990s. At one time everyone was prepared to criticise and say: "Look at the mess the environment is in. Why don't they do something about it? Who are they anyway?

The St Helens College project, its leaders and its students are leading from the front.

If you have a spare 16 hours to spend in the open air, why not give Fiona or Karl a call? During my exploration around Mere Sands my list of bird spottings was impressive indeed.

There were common birds such as blue tits which use the nest boxes put up by the volunteers but also more unusual species such as tree creepers. We found one nest containing the bodies of 10 young blue tits.

What probably happened is that the parents were killed by sparrowhawks and the young starved to death.

Those who work in the conservation area must learn to understand the sad chapters in the book of natural history as well as the happy episodes.

Fiona and her merry band of workers are, I think, part of a very happy chapter.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.