A FLOATING island of reed and sedge that was blocking a landing stage at Norfolk Wildlife Trust's Hickling Broad has been cleared, thanks to volunteers from HSBC.

A FLOATING island of reed and sedge that was blocking a landing stage at Norfolk Wildlife Trust's Hickling Broad has been cleared, thanks to volunteers from HSBC.

Traditional tools including the maige (a type of straight scythe) and crome (a right angled fork) were used to remove the hover, which was close to the observation hut at the nature reserve. A second group of volunteers cleared scrub that was threatening the precious open reedbed habitat.

The 14 volunteers are employees of HSBC bank and are working at the nature reserve as part of the new global HSBC Climate Partnership. This is a five-year global partnership between HSBC, The Climate Group, Earthwatch Institute, The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and WWF to reduce the impacts of climate change for people, forests, water and cities.

As one of the four key players in the partnership, Earthwatch is organising eight volunteering projects with local NGO partners throughout the country, including Norfolk Wildlife Trust.

Warden at NWT Hickling Broad, John Blackburn, said: “We were very impressed with all their hard word - they did an excellent job. This task is integral to our long terms plans to help the north side of Hickling Broad adapt to the changes we expect to be brought about by climate change.”