Four volunteers turned out and donned waders ready to spend the day clearing Iris from Island pool in the deer park at Dunham Massey....We don't barrow Iris up wet planks into the big trailer, which is quite tall - (see the last photo) - because of the danger of slips and falls.
So the best way to fill the trailer is using the tractor's bucket. The disadvantage of this is that the warden has to be there to drive the tractor. Quite early on it became apparent that the warden would have to split his time between this and other tasks around the park, with calls arriving on a mobile phone even in the middle of the pond.
Two people cut the Iris into section with spades. The resulting material was loaded into bread baskets and dragged back to dry land along a line of planks more or less supported on the mat of floating iris. One plank disappeared quite quickly underwater - it was easy to walk on as long as you knew where it was!
Sometimes a small team can achieve more than expected as it works efficiently. We cleared a significant area and transferred a lot of iris to the trailer. This was left by the pond for a few days to drain - and to give any hopping or crawling wildlife a chance to move back to the pond.
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