Volunteers for charity Earth Trust have been completing winter work to maintain an Oxfordshire nature reserve.

The reserve in Abingdon, Abbey Fishponds, is a “mini wetland” and supports some of the rarest and most threatened freshwater plants and wildlife in the UK.

Volunteer teams have been completing the winter cut of fens and reeds, a twice-a-year task carried out in spring and winter, using traditional tools to scythe and rake the material to promote biodiversity.

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A spokesperson for Earth Trust said: “In such delicate habitats, it’s not work that can be done by machines which makes for hard, manual labour so the charity relies on the volunteers.

“This week the team have been cutting and raking up the reeds around the ponds and next to the path and beginning to work on the larger reed bed areas in the south fen where they made a start on the sedge grass cut.

“This section is at the far end of the reserve and hasn’t been cut for a while, but many hands made fast work of raking and carrying to the heaps.”

The charity said that the site is an important riparian, or riverside, habitat and preserves rare fens and reed beds.

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The clearance programme promotes land health by reducing course, competitive species that would otherwise dominate.

Earth Trust are hosting a Big Give Christmas Challenge next month, raising funds to continue its care for the UK’s green spaces.

The appeal launches on December 2 and every donation will be matched by Big Give during the appeal. Find out more at earthtrust.org.uk.

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