Various jobs at Formby on Sunday 27th February 2022

Seven of us met ranger Bree at the Countryside Office at Formby just before 10 o’clock on a beautiful calm and sunny day.  The worksite was only a few feet away so by 10 o’clock we were hard at work at various
tasks. 

The rangers have done a lot of coppicing work, nothing to do with the stormy weather, just routine maintenance of the habitat.  Multiple piles of brash were lined up for burning.

Originally we were going to use the air burner but Bree decided the conditions were good enough to have a traditional fire instead.

Some of the branches were straight enough to be used as stakes for hedge laying.  One end was cut into a point using a bill hook.

Old tree guards have to be disposed of, fortunately the plastic can be recycled but needs some preparation. They have to be unrolled, the none recyclable plastic ties taken off then rolled up again as tightly as possible for storage in canvas sacks.  The NT is being charged per sack for transport to the recycler so squeezing as many in as possible saves money.

The finished pile of stakes is enough to keep the hedge laying team happy for a while.

One pallet load of plastic ready for recycling.

We lined up for this photo in the space that had been piled high with brash.

The weather helped make a very good day even if we didn’t see the sea.  The compensation was playing ball with one of the ranger’s dogs during lunch break.

Formby is one of our work sites more distant than most so it was good to have our first car pool since the pandemic.  Seven of us used three cars, thanks to drivers Neil, Andy and Jenny and not forgetting Sue who did the organising.

Jean

Cancelled - workday at Alderley Edge on Sunday 20th February 2022

Today's workday was cancelled because of the bad weather forecast (wind and rain) following Storm Eunice.

Hopefully the weather is drier and calmer for next Sunday's workday at Formby.

MNTV Committee

Rhodybash near Hayfield on Sunday 13th February 2022

Six of us met Ranger Mark and new Area Ranger Chris at the Sett Valley car park.  Once all had assembled we travelled in convoy to Park Hall.  Our task for the day as detailed by Mark and Chris was to pull up the rhodies on the moor and put them into bin bags.

We all split up and were each given two bin bags to fill.  The rhodies were easy to see and find as the moor hadn't been done for over two years.  They varied in height - some were 6 inches but there were quite a few that needed to be dug up which we tended to leave for another day and maybe another group.

At about 11 o'clock we came down from the moor and had a drink and a piece of Sainsbury's best Lemon Curd cake, sheltering out of the weather in the garage at the hall.

We all were given another two bin bags to fill.  As the weather was so bad it was decided that we would fill our bags and then have lunch back in the garage.

By lunch time we had filled 30 bin bags which we put in the back of the pick up and as it was still raining we had our lunch in the garage.

After lunch Mark looked at the weather forecast and decided that we would be soaked if we carried on so we decided to finish then.

It rained all day but we had fun!

Neil

Fencing at Styal on Sunday 6th February 2022

Six veteran MNTVers met Ceara in the car park at Styal then walked to the work site near Farm Fold.  The task was to remove fencing and railings on both sides of a small road leading to some cottages.  A pretty normal job for MNTV but it turned out a lot more strenuous than we expected.

Half the group started the day removing stock fencing and clearing vegetation to make way for a new hedge to be laid.

The other three started work dismantling the railings ...

... using an angle grinder to cut the cross pieces then digging out the supporting posts.

After tea break everyone worked as one team on the railings as Ceara told us contractors had already been booked to install new railings in the coming week.  We got quite a production line going and made laborious but steady progress.

The weather turned out surprisingly good and it was satisfying to complete such a hard task.  The only down side was the number of snowdrops we had to dig up in order to get the posts out! 

This is another project funded by the Green Recovery Fund.

Jean