Seven of us started the day with a walk across the Quarry Bank Mill site to Bank House farm. Beside the track there was a copse of willow trees which had drained a shallow pond. Our task was to cut the trees down and remove as many roots as possible to prevent regrowth.
Our first surprise was a barn owl that flew out of the trees as we approached. Ceara, our ranger for the day, thought it might have taken shelter there when it rained overnight and not woken up to go home before dawn.
We passed all the equipment (bowsaws, loppers, mattocks, spades and winch over the fence) as well as the essential cake.
We made short work of removing all the branches down to waist height. A lot of that work was done by break time.
After the break some of the group moved to removing the stumps. It’s hard work, first digging a ring round the trunk and cutting any large roots then attaching the winch and pulling the stump out.
We had a stop for lunch, then got back to removing the stumps. After a few hours we had made a huge difference to the area and some good winter rain should fill up the pond again.
We walked back to the cars, tired but proud of how much we had achieved.
Jenny
No comments:
Post a Comment