Conservation Volunteers 26th October

Tony at work

Of the sixteen-strong conservation team in on Wednesday, four went off to work with a visiting volunteer group removing unwanted western hemlock growth from Snipes Dene. The remaining dozen of us worked in the West Wood Clearing pulling out, digging out and cutting down vast numbers of non-native conifers which had self-seeded. The clearing - the result of conifer felling – has had some help with the planting of oak, yew, alder, ash, field maple and lime in protective plastic tubes. However, most regeneration over the last five or six years has occurred naturally with self-seeded silver birch and holly in large numbers and some shrubs including broom and bramble taking firm hold. The job itself was hard, but harder still was moving around through thick new growth over rotted brashing.

John Grundy

It was in this clearing that the volunteer Conservation Team did its first job: building a large carefully constructed log pile designed to attract and house invertebrates. It’s still looking good.

The First Log Pile was built in October 2006

Bracket Fungus

It being a Wednesday, the sun shone.