Get involved - join the
ECOVOLS
If you care about the Common and enjoy its wildlife and beauty why not join us, the ECOVOLS, the volunteer group of the ECA? We carry out a variety of conservation projects on the Common throughout the year in association with English Nature, Epsom and Ewell Borough Council and the Lower Mole Countryside Management Project.
You don’t need any special skills or experience just your enthusiasm and time!
If you want to know more about the ECOVOLS or join us on any of the following projects contact the ECOVOLS leader.
Management tasks
Our 2008 programme is available to download as a pdf file. We have regular tasks from January to May and from September to November on the third Sunday and following Monday. Our charcoal firings take place in February and March on the second Sunday and from April through to November on the first Sunday. During June, July and August we pull bracken by hand on Tuesday evenings.Charcoal burning
We have
joined forces with the Lower Mole Countryside Management Project to
produce barbecue charcoal on Epsom Common. This is part of a
traditional approach to managing woodland on the common and is the most
sustainable way of disposing of small diameter timber from scrub
clearance.
Epsom Common has a scrub encroachment problem and work has been going on for some time to remove areas of scrub to restore open habitat for a variety of plants, insects, birds and small mammals. By collecting the best of the wood together bonfires will be kept to a minimum and sales of charcoal will bring in a little bit of money which can be ploughed back into nature conservation work on the Common.
Charcoal burns take place once a month from February to November on the first Sunday of the month - see our 2007 programme (PDF). Please check in case of heavy rain.
The charcoal site map (PDF) shows where the charcoal site is.
Bags of this charcoal are available from the Lower Mole Countryside Trust at £5 per bag. Charcoal Fines, small particles of charcoal and dust, are also available at £3.00 a bag. Charcoal Fines are useful in the garden to help aerate compost and can be used as a mulch around young seedlings to deter slugs and snails.
ECOVOLS Site Map
The ECOVOLS map shows the location of all the ECOVOLS work sites. You will need Adobe Acrobat to view the map and newsletters.
