Felling trees at Hardcastle Crags on Sunday 8th November 2015

Five stout hearted amateur lumberjacks braved the foul weather this week to make the trip into Yorkshire to Hardcastle Crags. The journey up was particularly arduous for one intrepid volunteer who thought he knew better than his sat nav and consequently went thirty miles out of his way. He arrived just in time which was fortuitous as he was leading the group that day.

After donning their rain gear the resolute five along with the ranger Drew and two of the properties regular volunteers venture into the tempest raging outside to make the steep walk to the worksite. The task that day was the felling of trees, manly birch but with some oak, to thin out an area of woodland allowing light to reach ground thus helping the growth of various ground plants and establishing a bio diverse understory. The felled trees some reaching twenty feet in height were left where they droped to rot down providing valuable habitat for various fauna and flora particularly invertebrates.

 With the task completed the happy if slightly damp crew escaped the inclement weather walking back to the ranger’s station, a cosy farmhouse, to have lunch. Unfortunately the weather started to worsen so it was decided to call it a day rather than risk working in the increasing wind and failing light. 

Thanks go to Drew for arranging for an interesting workday and the informative chat about the trees and funguses that infect then.

PS everyone got home safely, one person a lot faster than he had come.         

Thanks to Tim for the text and to Adrian for managing to get a couple of photo's on such a miserable day!