Ten of us, including Jack who was with us for the first time, met Ranger Mark and new Ranger John in the Sett Valley Trail car park at Hayfield in the High Peak.
Once everyone was accounted for we drove the short distance to a small parking area near the access to Park Hall Moor. We were going to spend the morning removing rhody re-growth from the moor. Rhododendron ponticom is an invasive non-native shrub that severely damages native UK woodlands, habitats and wildlife, and many National Trust properties have spent many many years cutting it down and burning it to get rid of it.
I had a look and, on our current blog, the earliest entry I could find was on 6th January 2008 when nine of us did a rhodybash on the moor - but we'll have been doing rhodybashes even before then, but they aren't recorded on the blog we now use.
Before we started working, Ranger Mark told us that he had devised a system to ensure that the whole moor would eventually be covered by different groups of volunteers. He had divided the moor into 'blocks' in his mind, and was ensuring each new group started in the correct place covering the area he wanted so he could minimise the risk that some areas were missed.
The moor was steep, so lots of uphill walking for us, plus it was uneven underfoot which was hidden by the bracken and heather. There was also a steep slope down to the stream on one side, which was tricky to navigate, but we persevered and managed to fill many 'hippo bags' with the rhody branches. The weather stayed dry so we had our coffee break on the moor but later, after completing the areas we had been assigned, we walked down to the Rangers shelter and had our lunch there.
After lunch, we went into the woods around Park Hall and found more rhody to destroy, also finding some Fly Agaric fungi under a tree.
We had a great day and also got lots done. There was plenty of chatter and we learnt a lot from the tales told by Rangers Mark and John. We hope it won't be long before we're back to tackle more rhody on the moor.
Sue B
