Despite mixed weather reports during the week, by the time the day dawned, no rain was forecast and it ended up being warm and sunny:-)
For those of you who are unfamiliar with The Cloud, it is 300m high and is a prominent and compelling feature in the surrounding Cheshire lowland countryside. Since 1800, 84% of Britain's lowland heath has been lost and as such, areas such as the Cloud are extremely important. This has been reflected in the Cloud being designated as an area of Special Biological Interest.
Tim, the Ranger who covers the Cloud, couldn't join us today so, earlier in the week, Sue had collected a few mattocks from him and a map with instructions.
The biggest 'downside' of Tim not being with us was that we had to walk all the way up The Cloud carrying our tools, rucksacks and First Aid supplies, instead of getting a lift in his vehicle - it's a long way up!
Having reached the top, we surveyed the glorious countryside and magnificent views, had a look at the toposcope, then worked out where we were to be working. It took a while to find the correct way to get over the wall onto the heathland but, once there, we saw the task before us - lots of lowland heath but with birch sapling growing in amongst the heather. Our task was to remove the birch including the roots and then carry/drag the tree's to another area.
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| Magnificent views:-) |
Some of the saplings were so small, they could be pulled out easily by hand, but others were bigger, more established and needed mattocks to loosen the soil around the roots and occasionally loppers to cut some of the really long roots that were difficult to pull out.
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| Working hard! |
It was hard work but satisfying to see the big pile of birch that we'd uprooted by the end of the day.
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| Making a difference. |
The heathland didn't seem to look that different when it was time to leave, but we were pleased that we'd done our bit:-)
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| Group photo (taken by Adrian). |
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