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| It's almost Christmas |
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| Tree décor in the Walled Garden |
That’s the thing about Gibside these days – even in
December the car park is often full to overflowing. Of course, there have been
some very fine days this month, but even on drab days it has been busy. You’d
wonder where all those people get to and what damage their footfall might do in
what, after all, is largely a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a
nature reserve.
Well, The Avenue can take a hammering, with sections
of it having to be roped off at this time of year when the grass can’t make
good the damage. The Strawberry Castle play area takes a battering too, but
that’s as it should be. Elsewhere, people stroll the tracks through West Wood
and along the riverside, pop in to the café; some stray to the far reaches of
Snipes Dene, but not many. In fact, most of the estate experiences little
footfall at all, with some parts being rarely visited even by we Conservation
Volunteers.
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| The team burn some of the rhododendron prunings |
This month, we’ve been working in two such places. One
is quite close to another spot popular with the public – The Monument, but sees
no visitors on its steep banks, amongst its fine trees. We were there (as so
often is the case) cutting back encroaching rhododendron; burning some it and
building log piles with the bits too big to safely burn.
And, perched above an even steeper bank in an out of the
way stretch of Snipes Dene is a fine area of woodland, where we have been
thinning out young growth – mainly birch – amid the more mature oak, beech,
holly and ash. In doing so, we were attempting to open up a series of woodland
glades that will benefit and encourage a wider variety of plant life and
animals to go with it. We might even attract the elusive grass snake. In ten
years of working here, this is only my second or third visit to this beautiful
spot. As for visitor footfall, it’s unlikely to have any – reserved instead for
nature.
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| Before |
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| Hard at work |
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| Pile of brash from prunings |
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| After |
A Happy & Healthy New Year to all our readers.
Steve Wootten & Phil Coyne
