A DEDICATED band of volunteers who maintain a nature reserve at Catterick Garrison have been honoured with The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.

The accolade is the highest award a voluntary group can receive in the UK and it has been given to members of the Foxglove Covert Local Nature Reserve for all their hard work.

The volunteers work tirelessly sharing their skills and knowledge to maintain and develop the reserve’s abundance of habitats.

Found within the boundaries of Catterick Garrison, the largest garrison of the British Army, the reserve is home to more than 2,600 species and is open for everyone to visit and appreciate.

Representatives of Foxglove Covert will receive the Award crystal and certificate from Johanna Ropner, Lord Lieutenant of North Yorkshire, later this summer.

Furthermore, two volunteers from the group will attend a garden party at Buckingham Palace in May next year - depending on Coivd restrictions at the time - along with other recipients of this year's Award.

Chair of the reserve's management group, Lesley Garbutt, described what it means to the group to receive Royal acknowledgement.

She said: "Having been a volunteer at Foxglove Covert myself for the past 13-years, I know how dedicated and hard-working our volunteers are.

"Without them Foxglove Covert would not be what it is today, and I am so pleased that they have been recognised by Her Majesty the Queen."

Over the past 28-years, volunteers at Foxglove Covert have helped many species thrive from fungi, to insects, butterflies, birds and small mammals.

It has welcomed 740,000 visitors to date, and although it looks like a managed wilderness, it has needed 65,000 hours of volunteer labour over the past four years to keep it so vibrant.

The reserve is one of 241 charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups to receive the prestigious Queen's Award this year.

Often described as the MBE for voluntary groups, The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service aims to recognise outstanding work by volunteer groups to benefit their local communities.

It was created in 2002 to celebrate The Queen's Golden Jubilee and has gone from strength to strength.