Two manchester volunteers shared a car from Styal to Roydon Park on Thurstaton common on the Wirral. Where we met up with two volunteers from Merseyside and the local ranger. A third Merseyside volunteer arrived nearer midday. The task for the day was removing birch saplings from one of the paddocks.... Three areas of the common have been fenced and are now grazed - in an effort to maintain the rarer open heathland habitat holding back the natural process of "succession" which would see it reverting to woodland - which has a lower conservation status. With all the rain this year the grazing animals had plenty of lush grass to graze on - and as a result it took longer than normal for them to graze off the birch in the paddock they were in. The net result they never got moved into the other paddocks - leaving the birch to grow unchecked. Once it gets too big - the grazers won't manage it - and then volunteers are needed to either cut it down or pull it up. We got some done but there is a lot left to do.
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