Hillingdon woodland has been given a new lease of life, after a five-figure cash injection and two years of hard work by volunteers.

Visitors to Ten Acre Wood, which adjoins Yeading Brook Meadows, are enjoying the benefits of nearly half-a-kilometre of new path that has been laid, replacing muddy tracks and making it easier for people to access this London Wildlife Trust nature reserve and enjoy its native wildlife.

Sharp-eyed visitors this summer should be able to spot birds such as black cap, whitethroat and great spotted woodpecker, alongside butterflies and bush-crickets.

The path will also reduce trampling around the site and help protect plant species such as orchids and adder’s tongue fern.

This is all thanks to Veolia Environmental Trust, who gave London Wildlife Trust a grant of £25,045 in April 2014, awarded through the Landfill Communities Fund, to carry out this programme of work at Ten Acre Wood.

It was completed with the help of 42 volunteers over a two-year period.

Great spotted woodpeckers can be found in the Hillingdon woodland

More people can enjoy Ten Acre Wood

Tom Hayward, Reserves Manager for London Wildlife Trust, said: “We are delighted that these new pathways will enable more people to enjoy Ten Acre Wood, while at the same time helping to protect the wildlife-rich grassland and woodland habitats that we have here.

“It will be exciting to see if our ditch clearance work helps attract more water voles to the nature reserve in the near future.”

Other work at the site has included the clearance of ditches where water voles, Britain’s fastest declining wild mammal, have been recorded in the past.

These ditches had become heavily silted and overgrown with dense scrub, and the desilting programme is expected to increase the chances of water vole returning to the wood.

Paul Taylor, Executive Director of The Veolia Environmental Trust, said: “We support community and environmental projects across England and Wales and it is always great to hear about the completion of one we have supported.

“I hope the new footpath leads to many more people enjoying the woods, and the habitat improvements enable them to thrive.”