The volunteers have conducted footpath maintenance tasks across Clackmannanshire. These paths have fallen into disrepair and required great effort to restore them.
These sites were located at Sterling mills, the national cycle network path located beside the tree nursery in Tillicoultry, Devon Meadow and Tillicoultry glen. The tasks performed at these sites included cutting back encroaching grass/brambles, removing overhanging branches, litter picking, scraping up fallen leaves, improving drainage, cleaning litter and fixing non-slip strips on boardwalks.
Volunteers were trained in path maintenance, safe felling of small branches using bow saws and path scraping.
The volunteers enjoy taking part in these tasks and working together to achieve them – using their own problem-solving skills to suggest solutions for fixing issues on the path. These tasks allow them to see many parts of Clackmannanshire that they usually do not get to see. These tasks also offer them a great sense of satisfaction; they can see a clear difference in these sites due to their work. In all the volunteers managed to clear 450m of path from leaves and scrub.
Through this work access has improved at these busy sites. In particular the maintenance carried out on steps going up Tillicoultry glen has improved safety on the steps up the glen. These needed a drastic cutting back of grass that threatened to over grow them entirely. The public can now move unhindered through all of these areas. The volunteers will be undertaking similar work at areas across the Hillfoots in the near future.
We had a great day working on the paths and were lucky to have the sun shine on such a beautiful view.
EPIC volunteer