*CANCELLED* workday at Hardcastle Crags on Sunday 23rd February 2020

Today's tree planting at Hardcastle Crags was cancelled because nobody signed up.  Perhaps people were put off by the wet weather forecast and early start (9:30).

Collecting and chopping wood at Lyme Park on Sunday 16th February 2020

The work programme said we were off to Biddulph today, but Storm Dennis had other ideas and the task of planting whips at Biddulph had to be postponed.  Not to be put off by some wind and rain Ally phoned round and found a task for us to do in the bad weather.  Chris and Craig at Lyme asked if we could help clear up some branches that had been cut from the oaks near the picnic area and car park and chop some firewood.

We were reminded how dangerous the wet and slippy ground can be when the Ranger was called away to help rescue a lady who had slipped and broken her ankle.  He stayed with her until the ambulance arrived to take care of her.

When we finished loading we made use of the picnic tables for our morning break. Refreshed, we made our way up to the kennels to find some wood to chop.  We found a little more than we could do in one day, but we had a good go.

By the end of the day we had added two more ceiling high stacks of chopped oak to the wood store.  The oak will take three years to season ready to burn in the houses on the estate.

The Rangers were busy controlling the water levels around the estate because of all the rain we had had on Saturday.  Luckily, contrary to the weather forecast, we had very little rain on the day and even had a little sunshine.  We returned home with the satisfaction of another day's volunteering completed and friendships renewed.

Jenny

*CANCELLED* workday at Styal on Sunday 9th February 2020

Today's workday at Styal was cancelled due to Storm Ciara.

Various tasks at Formby on Sunday 2nd Feb 2020

A quartet of hardy MNTVers travelled to Formby on a surprisingly fine day to work with rangers Will and Izzie and ten members of the Merseyside NT Volunteers; we split into two groups to work on multiple tasks. The area is very popular, especially with dog walkers, and our job for the morning was to improve access from one of the car parks to the sea. The rangers had already scraped off the top layer of a wind blown path so we hauled a mixture of sand and stones to relay the surface.

Working on the path...

The mixture was then tamped down with a roller to make it weather resilient. A total of 100 tons of material will be needed to complete the job.

...and after it's been tamped down.

In the afternoon we carried out mitigation work the National Trust needs to do to balance the installation of a pay and display car park. We used ‘tree poppers’ to grub out planted poplar trees from amongst the native dog rose. The aim of the project is to create a mosaic environment to enhance the conservation value of the area.

Even though there were only four of us, the fact we were able to work alongside the Merseyside group enabled us to achieve visible progress.

Text and photo's from Jean

'Slow the Flow' at Hardcastle Crags on Sunday 26th January 2020

Today's workday took us over the border to Yorkshire, and Hardcastle Crags near Hebden Bridge. In 2015 the town suffered severe flooding, an increasingly common occurrence in the Calder valley. Some residents decided to take an active role in protecting their local area, and formed 'Slow The Flow', a group aimed at reducing the impact of future floods.

Five volunteers from MNTV joined another twenty or so Slow The Flow volunteers to create several 'mini dams' across the streams and runnels on the hillside above the valley. Around 400 of these have been set up around Hebden Bridge, and while one dam on its own makes only a small difference, the idea is that several hundred will significantly slow down the rate at which water runs into the rivers that flow through the town. This should reduce the height of the water at 'peak flow' time during flooding events, which could avoid damage to property, or at least reduce the impact where complete avoidance is not possible.

The work involved teams of 6-8 people lifting large sections of tree trunks into the bed of the stream or runnel, while others cut smaller branches and pieces of brash to help finish the dam. About a dozen new dams were installed in the woodland where we were working, before we stopped at midday. The morning's rain put the dams immediately to the test!

After lunch in the welcome shelter of the rangers' office, the afternoon's job, billed as 'tree planting', turned out to be the complete opposite! To encourage light to reach the floor of the woods and encourage greater biodiversity, some of the pervasive beech trees had their side branches cut back to create a wood 'monolith'. Many young beech trees had sprung up in the understorey, and would quickly take over if not controlled, so our job was to cut them back and place them on brash piles to rot down. It was tricky work on the steep slope, but we made progress over a large area before we called it a day.

Even on a damp day the woods were full of walkers, testament to the great beauty of this part of the world. It was good to know we'd played our part in not only keeping it looking beautiful, but also helping the people who live in the area.

Scrub bashing at Dunham Massey on Sunday 19th January 2019

Today saw us return to Dunham Massey for our first workday in over three years.  We were last there on 9th October 2016 and it was great to be back.  Our return coincided with the recent appointment of Craig Buckley as Lead Ranger.  We had another nice surprise too, with the appearance on her first workday for several years of Anne Yates, one of our longest serving members.

The main job Craig had for us was clearing scrub from inside the perimeter fence of a tree plantation halfway down Charcoal Drive.  The scrub (bracken, small saplings and brambles) was being cut down to take weight off the wire fence and so increase its life.

The plantation is securely fenced and so is one area at Dunham that is deer free, but that's not to say we didn't see wildlife.  Christine H saw two foxes chasing each other and Christine B, Oliver, Daniel and Anne enjoyed a robin's company for half an hour.  There were lots of passersby on the path beside that edge of the plantation and several asked us what we were doing and why.

Brewtime was taken and 11 and we had the choice of two cakes: Sultana & Orange traybake (Daniel) and gluten free Peach Melba cake (Anne).  Both got tried and enjoyed.

We had finished the scrub bashing by lunchtime (1pm) and so afterwards Craig set us on another task which was cutting down or cutting limbs off the trees marked (by green paint spots) for clearance.  A lot of these trees had squirrel damage (bark gnawed off at ground level), and Craig said his ranger team would be culling grey squirrels this year.

Our last job of the day was to collect up wooden posts that were no longer in use and pile them by the plantation entrance.  On our walk back to Charcoal Drive we passed an enormous 250-year-old beech tree that Craig had recently had felled.  It was infected by three types of fungi and was in danger of falling over.

Once we had walked the half mile back to the carpark Craig took this group photo (Anne, Christine B and Oliver not shown because they had to leave after lunchtime).  

It was an excellent workday and we look forward to our next visit to Dunham on 8th March.

Daniel

Various tasks at Lyme Park on Sunday 12th January 2020 (first workday of 2020)

Despite the rain, 11 hardy MNTV-ers turned up to meet Ranger Claire in the main car park at Lyme Park.
We loaded Claires NT vehicle with our tools and walked to join her at the old Dog Kennels where, after a tools and safety talk, we found out the various tasks that were scheduled for the day.
As well as burning a pile of wood containing brash, old furniture and tree's, Claire explained that they wanted to introduce Highland cattle into the field behind the Dog Kennels and the wood at the side of it. Before this could be done, the existing deer fencing and posts needed removing, the wood needed checking that it was safe for cattle to graze, and to also attach some barbed wire to the top of an existing fence which was between the fire site and the wood, to deter the cattle from getting too close.

Starting to remove the deer fencing

Removing a post and rolling the wire for re-use

A harder post to remove, around the base needed digging out and a bar used to help lever it out. 

A job well done!!

To start with, Claire took Sue and Sue to start the fire, while Mick and Jean went to check out the wood area to find any scrap metal etc that would need moving later with extra help. The rest of the group started removing the staples where the deer fencing was attached to the posts, leaving the top staple in place until they were ready to roll the fencing, this would then be re-used on another task. The grass, weeds and brambles had grown over the bottom of the wire fencing so some of us used slashers to clear it away.
After the morning break, the weather cleared up and we swapped jobs a bit so different people were on the fire, and did the same after lunch.

Loading the fire

We were delighted that we got everything done by the end apart from removing some of the heavier fencing posts that we think had been cemented in place.

Adding the barb to the fence surrounding the fire site

The weather had mainly cleared up for the majority of the day, although a late light shower resulted in a double-rainbow:-)

A double rainhow (you'll see the 2nd if you look very closely to the left of the shot)

Photo's from Pip and Sue