Japanese Students Visit the town

Shrewsbury is hosting a group of High School Students from Osaka who are visiting as part of the Osaka International House Foundation Youth Volunteer Mission. Mr Tokiushi Kishi organised the visit, which aims to exchange conservation and horticultural knowledge and also to improve the students' use of the English language.

While in Shrewsbury the group will be participating in some volunteer activities and one of these will be a session with the Shrewsbury Countryside Unit carrying out some conservation work and learning a little more about UK wildlife.

The group have been working with Neil Harrison, Field Officer, at Mousecroft Community Woodland. Mousecroft Community Woodland, Mousecroft Lane, off Longden Road is a ten-acre community woodland planted in 1996 to 1999 by local people and school children. They made a donation to the Countryside Unit towards administration costs for the exchange.

The students have been planting snowdrops at Attingham Park, and making presentations to schools about Japanese culture.

Gerald Longley, Countryside Officer commented "We are delighted to welcome this group of Japanese students to Shrewsbury and we are very glad we are able to help in this international exchange. Two students on placement with the Countryside Unit, Mark Brice and Mathew Wilcoxon will also get to meet the Japanese students and exchange ideas about wildlife and nature conservation. We have previously had exchange students from Austria and Germany as part of our ongoing education programme."

The Countryside Unit was set up in 1990, following the adoption of the Shrewsbury Countryside Strategy by SABC, to help bring about the joint objectives of conserving the rich wildlife and countryside in and around Shrewsbury whilst also providing greater opportunities for people to enjoy, appreciate and learn from quiet recreation.