Marine recruits pick up litter on Woodbury Common

More than 100 Marine recruits from the Commando Training Centre at Lympstone spent several hours picking up litter on their annual end-of-term litter pick on Woodbury Common.

 The recruits, who use part of the Common for exercises, were helping the Commons team who spend time clearing the area every week.

 "It's good to see the responsible attitude the Marines take to their use of the area," said East Devon Pebblebed Heaths Conservation Trust warden Bungy Williams. "Although the troops clear their exercise area after they leave, this clear up ensures that some of the missed litter is also picked up. If you look in some of the rubbish bags you might think the Marines survived on a fast food diet, but of course most of the litter they picked up was dropped by other users of the Commons."

 The Royal Marines have been training on the Commons for more than 60 years and are recognised as a useful deterrent against environmental vandalism such as arson and dumping of waste. The regular trampling by troops also appears to do a similar job to grazing cattle creating wetlands favoured by the rare damsel fly.

 "There are lots of benefits of having the Royal Marines training on the Commons," said Bungy. "I also want to thank an unknown member of the public for picking up a pile of beer bottles at the Four Firs Cross car park. I had directed the Marinesto it but a local walker had got there first. So thank you to everyone for a first class team effort."