Sunday 27 April 2014

Dunham Massey - 27 April 2014

Eleven of us had an excellent day at Dunham Massey working with head ranger Andrew Wyllie.  Today was the first workday for three of the group and the second workday for three more.

The job for the day was to resurface a ditch opposite the sawmill left in a poor state by the contractor that had laid utility pipes to the new Visitors Centre.  The upper crust of earth had baked hard and if left untreated would not reseed successfully.  At best nettles would grow on it.  We broke up the surface with forks and spades and then raked in about six tonnes of fine topsoil such that the soil resembles the soil in the rest of the deerpark.

Many hands make light work...
When it next rains Andrew will reseed the area and by the end of the summer it should have greened over.  Dunham have taken expert advice about what type of grass to sow.  They don't want a grass that will outcompete the surrounding parkland grass and instead want the parkland grass to encroach over the ditch.

After the next rain the ground will be reseeded
It's been a while since we've worked with Andrew and it was good to catch up with him and hear the latest Dunham news including the great success of the Stamford Military Hospital.

Sunday 13 April 2014

Hare Hill on Sunday 13th April 2014

What a fantastic day - admittedly a bit cold when the wind was blowing, but otherwise dry and sunny for a mixed day of work at Hare Hill with Julia the NT Ranger.

Ten of us (including 3 out with us for the first time) spent the first hour just outside the Hare Hill car park, cutting tree branches that had already been felled or had fallen during the high winds, to a more manageable size. We used loppers for the thinner branches and bow saws to cut the larger ones. These were then dragged or carried to nearer the car park railings and out of the way of the main gate where the NT vehicles gain access to the lake. The ground is quite boggy in places in front of the gate and, without a larger area to drive over, the jeeps could easily get bogged down in the mud.

Once this was complete, we walked down to the lake where we looked at the copse where we would be doing a rhody bash after our morning coffee break. When we got back to work, Gordon got the fire going really easily and it wasn't long before most of the volunteers were busy cutting down the rhododendron ponticum and burning it on the fire. We managed to burn all that was cut down (that was the remit, so no cut rhody was left around, in case the cows ate it the next day) and left the site nice and tidy.




 
There was also a job to do painting the railings around the lake but most people were having so much fun with the rhody that only Adrian and Julia volunteered and went off to do this task.


It was a super day and a good time was had by all:-)

Sunday 6 April 2014

Path repairs and shalom removal in the Northern Woods at Styal

I took the day off (decided I didn't fancy getting tied up in the marathon.....

Thanks to Adrian for leading and providing the photos and text





We worked in the northern woods in the morning mending a path which had been damaged by a sallow tree falling over, we got the timber revetment in and the path will be surfaced properly in the week. In the afternoon we went further into the woods and removed an invasive species called shalom which is low growing and a bit like ivy.