Last week, whilst some of us laid waste to molehills –
though not to moles – others were busy resurfacing the path that runs to the
rear of the Chapel. Civil engineering isn’t really our thing. Terry and Mary
occasionally check and clear the many gullies that help keep the Estate’s
tracks from becoming waterlogged, but for the best part we deal with nature and
landscape; infrastructure is best left to others. Anyway, this path had become
a slimy, sticky yellow – not good for visitors or chapels – and was in need of
urgent improvement.
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| Boys from The Blackstuff - the completed path |
This week, as we laid waste to rhododendrons on the ride and
in the woods adjacent to the Monument to Liberty, some reflected that last
week’s path building was one of the few seemingly constructive activities the
Wednesday Conservation Team had undertaken. Of course, this isn’t true. We
plant trees, build log piles, manage ponds and many other things to improve the
landscape and encourage wildlife. And we cut down rhododendrons and burn them.
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| Pyromaniacs at work! |
Some things just don’t belong, or are too successful at the
expense of other species. Recently, for example, we removed great numbers of
silver birch and sycamore that threatened newly planted hazel in the West Wood.
On the other hand, we rely upon silver birch to lead the recolonization of
clear-felled Snipes Dene. Opinions differ about sycamore, but all agree that
the non-native, invasive western hemlock must be eliminated. Rhododendron
presents a conundrum: people love it for its display of early summer flowers,
but it is a difficult to control imported nuisance that blankets the woodland
floor and drives out native species. Gibside, after all, is largely designated
nature reserve of one type or another. So we chop it down or pull it up, and
burn it. It’s being destructive to be constructive in our mission to conserve
nature.
Steve Wootten & Phil Coyne
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