Formby 16th June 2013

Four of us travelled to Formby on a slightly cloudy day and met with Kate the Ranger and Robbie, another volunteer, at the Countryside Office to get the details of our task for the day. We had a choice of 'planting' dead Christmas trees at the side of the dunes to help prevent sand erosion or Balsam bashing. We opted to start with the former and see how we'd got on by lunchtime as to whether we'd Balsam bash in the afternoon.

While driving to the NT car park, Sue mentioned that she'd love to see a red squirrel during the day to which Adrian replied "I've just seen one running along that garden fence!". Sue was gutted that she'd not seen it.

Once we got to the dunes, we started planting the dead Christmas trees. It was glorious sunshine and we found it much easier than expected and very satisfying.

At lunchtime, we went down onto the beach and ate our sandwiches there - it was lovely to be able to enjoy the seaside on such a nice day. After lunch we resumed the tree planting and, as we were at the side of the walkway to the beach, lots of visitors came over to chat to us and find out who we were and what we were doing.

By the end of the afternoon, we'd made a big difference and had planted tree's at the end of paths that had formed from the dunes, where the sand was being away, as a line by the side of the fence.

Kate, the Ranger, told us that the dunes are moving about 4 metres a year and, although they do not want to stop the sand going into the sea and travelling up the coast, they do want to prevent the sand being blown off the dunes and into the car park and onto the path to the beach, as the dunes are part of Formby's natural sea defences and are needed there.

 

We had such a good day, getting a tan as well as enjoying the work and, when we stopped near the kiosk on the way out, Sue saw a red squirrel in a tree:-)  The day couldn't have been any more perfect!