This week a small group of four worked with ranger Iain on Nab Brow above Kinder Reservoir, knocking back bracken around recently planted saplings.
 |
| Hunting for small trees amongst the bracken |
We parked at the reservoir, then had a 20 mins. walk, quite steep uphill in places, but the weather was cooler than the previous day and overcast, so quite comfortable for walking. It’s a beautiful area, we could see Kinder Downfall from the worksite and the Pennine Way passes not too far away so it's popular for walking; this gave us plenty of opportunity to talk to people as they went by.
The National Trust is planting trees - oak, rowan, birch, holly, elder - as part of long term conservation work to connect up existing woodland, increase biodiversity and slow down peat erosion from rain water runoff.
 |
| Woodland planted about 20years ago |
The tools of the day were sickles and weed whackers which we used to cut back bracken from around the saplings so they have a better chance of surviving. They were planted about two years ago in a random pattern - no straight lines allowed! - so they were quite difficult to find; we were looking for little green trees among thousands of green bracken as those taller than the bracken didn’t need the extra ‘help’.
It was a very tiring day, on account of the steep terrain more than the work, but satisfying. We may not go to the area again, but the woodland progression we saw on Sunday gave us a good idea of the result in 20-30 years time.
 |
| Lunch break |
No comments:
Post a Comment