Gorsebashing at Formby on 30 November 2014

Today we had our second workday of the year at Formby on the Lancashire coast.  Three travelled in Daniel's car from Styal and four others made their own way there.  We worked with six Merseyside NTVers and the 13 of us spent the day gorsebashing on an area of dune heathland a ten-minute walk from the rangers' office on Blundell Avenue.  The work was akin to rhodybashing but with a lot more prickles and no bonfire!

We all went at it 100% and by the time we finished at 3pm had cleared gorse from a large area:

Panorama photo showing large piles of cut gorse

The rangers will remove all the gorse cuttings from the heathland and in time the area should return to its natural heather cover.  There is a lot more gorse to be removed and Formby's regular Friday volunteer group will resume next week from where we left off.

As Christmas is fast approaching Daniel had baked a Christmas tree-shaped chocolate cake and this was enjoyed by everyone at the 11:30 coffee break and at lunch.