Safety, equipment and organisation

Volunteer tasks which are specifically coastal, such as marram planting, are on the whole simple and undemanding and require little equipment. Generalised volunteer tasks such as footpath construction, fencing and scrub and tree clearance, on the other hand, require much more care and a considerable variety of tools. The points which follow are basic and, for the latter type of work, cover minimum needs only. Machine work also demands protective clothing and safety equipment additional to that which is listed below. The leaflets of the Forestry Safety Council (c/o the Forestry Commission) give codes of practice for most of the power tools likely to be used by volunteers.

Materials needed for constructing features such as footpaths and fences are described where appropriate in the text.