You can join as a Furness PathFix volunteer to help with a range of things: –
- Surveying:
- This just involves walking a path and taking photos and making a few notes at each significant point – e.g. where it meets a road, at stiles/gates and particularly at any problems you find – blockages, boggy bits, missing waymarks etc. Then simply send us your photos and notes and we will look into it.
- It’s useful if you can take a pair of old gloves and secateurs to do very minor trimming at the same time, e.g. where a bramble has grown across the path.
- But do not take any risks – any more significant clearing should be left to a clearing team (see below) and if you find the path is unsafe just take photos and notes and turn back and report it to us.
- This just involves walking a path and taking photos and making a few notes at each significant point – e.g. where it meets a road, at stiles/gates and particularly at any problems you find – blockages, boggy bits, missing waymarks etc. Then simply send us your photos and notes and we will look into it.
- Waymarking:
- We have new waymarks available and battery drills and screwdrivers that you could use. It’s not a difficult job, but you will first need to register with us and be shown what’s involved.
- Clearing:
- By this we mean more than just cutting back a few overgrowing brambles with a simple pair of secateurs, which you might do while surveying. For bigger clearing jobs we will first contact the landowner, and then organise a working party to tackle it. We have hedge trimmers and other equipment, but everyone involved needs to be registered with us and covered by our insurance.
- Fixing stiles / gates / waymark posts / fingerposts:
- This involves things like woodwork or stonework, digging holes for posts (tools and training provided) and getting dirty! It’s is a job for one of our fixers teams, who now have quite a lot of experience, but we definitely need more volunteers for this, so please say in the Comments box below if you’re interested in joining one of our existing teams to learn the ropes. Again you will need to be registered with us and included in our insurance.
To join Furness PathFix to help with any of these things, please complete and submit our form below. Note that:
- We will only use your personal information for PathFix purposes.
- Please give your permission to pass on your email & postcode to the Ramblers Association, who provide our insurance. You will get free liability and personal accident insurance when working on path maintenance projects, and The Ramblers will only use your email as appropriate to your volunteer role, to send things like volunteer news and anything around safety and training.
- Please offer to do a first aid course. For work parties and fixing team jobs we need at least one first aider present, so the more first-aid-qualified volunteers we have the better. There’s no cost involved and you’ll learn very useful life skills.