Ascension : Conservation Weekly
Submitted by The Islander (Conservation Office) 10.06.2010 (Article Archived on 24.06.2010)

We would like to thank the RAF Movements team for their help clearing the Green Mountain paths. Thanks also to Steve Roulston for volunteering with us during the last month.

Ascension Island Conservation Team

Volunteering on Green Mountain

We would like to thank the RAF Movements team for their help clearing the Green Mountain paths. Thanks also to Steve Roulston for volunteering with us during the last month.

Report by Sac Dunstan

I and my fellow Air Mobility Team members arrived in early April. After a couple of weeks of exploring what the island had to offer and settling in to our new environment, we volunteered to do some path clearing up Green Mountain.

We started early one Wednesday morning, the party included me (Knock Off), Sgt May (Zippy) and Cpl Campbell (Wally). Sac Stephens couldn’t make it as he was doing vital preparation work for the next inbound aircraft.

We started clearing Cronks path, after initially struggling to find it we were on our way. Wally was throwing his machete around at a frantic pace chopping everything and anything that got in his way. Myself and Zippy were left tidying up his path of destruction; there was a lot to clear up. While clearing Cronks path we were treated to some amazing views of the island and this seemed to numb the pain of my newly acquired blisters.

After clearing a good section of the path we called it a day. On the way down me and Wally were treated to the Questionable driving skills of Sgt May.  Tired and with our newly acquired blisters we went to the bar to commend our performance later that night.

On the second occasion up Green Mountain we were up to full strength, Sac Stephens (Tris) with his slight fear of heights was up for the challenge. This time round we would be starting to clear Elliot’s path. After suffering whiplash on the way up from Wally’s delicate gear changing we were ready. This time Wally was a bit slower off the mark clearly still tired from his lack of sleep over the past couple of weeks. Tris made up for this though with swings full of vigour, the branches came hurtling down thick and fast.

The land crabs were out on show. We must have seen hundreds of them while tidying along the path. The hours seemed to fly by, after another good day of clearing the path and sampling all the views we headed for home.

While we have been on the island we have also managed to fit a lot of fishing in to our hectic daily schedule. Trying different spots on the island on an almost daily basis Wally and Zippy (who it must be said has probably lost hundreds of pounds worth of RAF fishing kit in the process) have been very successful in catching an array of fish for me to cook on the bbq. We also ran a stall in the Ascension Day fair in which we managed to raise a commendable ninety one pounds for charity.

I think as a whole we have really enjoyed what the Ascension Island has to offer as a place to work and as a place to relax and have fun.