We had a fabulous day today. The sun shone for most of it and it was glorious being outside and helping Ethan, the Dunham Ranger, with today's task.
Nine of us met Ethan in the car park at Dunham. He transported our tools and rucksacks in his trailer to save us carrying them and we walked to meet him at the 'dig-in' plantation towards the end of Charcoal Drive.
When Ethan unlocked the gate to the plantation and we wandered in, we saw how overgrown it was and how big some of the trees were! This area is meant to be a nursery area for trees whereby they are 'dug-in' for a short time before being transplanted elsewhere on the estate. Unfortunately this hadn't been done for some time and the whole area was overgrown with brambles and weeds. The tree's had been in there too long and were close together so needed either cutting down, if they were too large to move, or digging up and put in damp black bin bags to help the roots stay moist, while they were re-located to be re-planted the following day.
We were so lucky with the weather, it was dry all day and sunny for most of it too. When the clouds came over it went a little chilly but for our morning break and lunch, we were able to sit in the sun, relaxing - you couldn't beat it:-)
We spotted various wildlife while we were there - a mouse darted in front of us, we saw various frogs and made sure they were safe and well away from the slashers we were using to cut down the weeds. Hazel and Loretta also found various beetles and grasshoppers, which they loved putting on their hands and taking photo's of.
All in all a great day and, although we didn't clear the whole area by any means, we at least felt that we'd made a great impact!
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