Rhodybash at Lyme Park on Sunday 20th December 2020

Today saw us return to Lyme Park for the first time since 1st March and the national lockdowns.  We were proud to be the first large group to be invited back and Chris Dunkerley (Lead Ranger) used our visit to trial the covid protocols designed to ensure the safety of volunteers, staff and visitors.

12 of us spent the day rhodybashing in Lantern Wood.  Covid safety measures included social distancing throughout the day, use of hand sanitiser at all breaks (especially before cutting the chocolate roulade that Daniel had baked!) and nobody swapping loppers and bowsaws.  Before we began work, Chris ran through the worksite risk assessment (including covid) and we all signed a form to say we had heard and understood it.

We worked with ranger Alex Bond, once of MNTV.  I'd not seen him for several years and it was great to catch up with him and hear about how his career is progressing with the Trust.  From Styal he had moved to Dunham and now to Lyme.  Alex's enthusiasm for his work is infectious!

Neil, Andy H and Adrian stoking the bonfire (photo: Jenny)

Group photo towards the end of the day (photo: Abbey)

We cleared a large patch of rhody during the morning and into the afternoon and then from 2pm stopped cutting and focussed on burning all the cuttings.  Alex used the leaf blower to aerate the bonfire and bring it back to life whenever it was dying down.

We left the worksite shortly after 3pm and left Alex and Chris to make the fire safe.  It had been an excellent workday and so nice to see old faces after a gap of nine months and meet two newcomers (Abbey and Anna).

There are acres of rhody still to  clear and we will tackle another patch when we return in January.

Daniel

Rhodi bash at Hayfield, High Peak, on Sunday 13th December 2020

 Six of us from MNTV met with Mark NT ranger at Sett Valley car park and went on convoy up to Park Hall, we just managed with our 5 cars plus land rover to all park off the road.

Our day was to be split into 2 sections. Firstly we went up onto the moor to pull rhodi that had started to grow again.  We each had 2 bin bags which didn't take too long to fill and it nicely coincided with the rain starting again and brew time. Plus by this time everyone's gloves were pretty wet and hands starting to get cold.

Whist we warmed ourselves with a hot drink Mark took a bag of our rhodi pulling to see if he could get a fire going. We then went up the steep slope to where we have worked in the past.  Whilst Andy H kept the fire going Mark showed the rest of us where he wanted us working. He was very specific as the wind had got up as well as the rain and he didn't want us working under or near trees that he wasn't happy with.

After a while he came and collected us all as a large branch off a tree close by had come down and he felt it too risky to continue working in the woods. So we called it a day as people were starting to feel the cold through very wet clothes.

Even so it was a good day and it was nice to be back at Hayfield, especially as we were their first group back since March due to Coronavirus.

Sorry to everyone who couldn't come due to shortage of parking and not being able to car share.

Text from Christine who was worksite leader, photo's from Christine, Andy H and Adrian.

Tree planting at Quarry Bank Mill, Styal on Sunday 6th December 2020

Twelve of us were back at Quarry Bank Mill, planting trees in zone 3. The area above where we planted before.

There were 1,200 whips of various types to be planted in "islands". Each island will be surrounded by wide paths of wildflower meadow. The islands will act as a bridge between the meadow and Wood we planted on previous workdays. Providing habit for many insects and small mammals and somewhere for owls to roost and hunt.

The centre of the islands were tall species like Wild service, crab apple, wild cherry, Hazel.  Then a variety of native species, like Gelder Rose and elder. Then spiky plants were put round the edge, e.g Blackthorn, Hawthorn, Gorse, Holly. To keep people and large animals out.

The hard bit was making them an irregular shape it was so tempting to fill the gaps and make it round.

Working hard we managed to plant all 1200 trees before we left.  I'll have to pop back in years to come to check on "glove island". 

Text and some photo's from Jenny, additional photo's provided by Jean and Adrian.

Note from Sue: we had a 'small' distraction during our workday, in the shape of Ribble, Colin the Ranger's 8 week old pup. Both Colin and Ribble had been on Countryfile the previous week when Colin was explaining about the tree project at Styal.  

Gorse bashing at Formby, Liverpool, on Sunday 29th Nov 2020

Four MNTVer's made the journey over to Formby today to meet up with Ranger Izzie and her dog, Lexie, at 10am.

We had to each travel in our own cars as we aren't able to car-share at the moment, due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

We walked to the field we'd be working in and Izzie showed us the volume of Gorse, interspersed with a small amount of Silver birch and Broom, that needed to be removed so that the hedge which was behind it and was completely hidden could be laid at some time in the future. The original plan was that we might get chance to burn the Gorse that we'd cut, but we were disappointed. As the Sefton Coast is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), including Formby National Trust, permission needs to be obtained from Natural England to be allowed to burn on the site and to work on the hedge. Although this had been applied for, it hadn't been granted by today, so Izzie asked if we could leave the Gorse in piles in the field, so it could be burned once permission was granted.

Izzie then had to leave us so we got going....each selecting a different area to start cutting with bowsaws and loppers, so we could be socially distanced. It was a chilly day but we soon got warm and, apart from a short coffee break at 11.30am and a lunch break around 1.15pm, we worked hard until 3.30pm when the light started to fade, knowing we still had to load the cars and travel back home.

Izzie and Lexie had popped back to see us just after lunch and Izzie seemed really pleased with what we'd already achieved at that point.

Towards the end of the day we seemed to be working even harder and faster as we desperately wanted to get the whole job done before we left. Disappointingly we had to admit defeat and had to leave some of the Gorse untouched. Another volunteer or another hour of daylight would have done it but, "c'est la vie" - we'd still achieved a lot and were delighted with the progress we'd made:-)

Woodland work at Dunham Massey on Sunday 22nd November 2020

Eleven MNTVers met the ranger, Sophie, by the Clock Tower on a pleasant, warm (for Nov) morning. Dunham was very busy even at 10 o’clock and it took a while to get through the queue at the entrance.

The task today was a continuation of the job we started on 1 Nov. in the Top Plantation. Many of the trees planted 20 years ago have been damaged by squirrels and silver birch has self seeded. Thinning out the growth will allow more sunlight to reach the ground and increase biodiversity.

The sun soon came out so we were able to enjoy a socially distanced lunch in brilliant sunshine and taste test chocolate brownies and mince pies.

Some of the trees were too big to fell with bow saws so we just lopped off the tops and left the trunk for the rangers to attack later with a chainsaw.

It was Sophie’s last day at Dunham as she’s off to pastures new, working with the Mersey Forest at Risley Moss. Everyone at MNTV wish her well.

After an enjoyable and productive day a final farewell was said to the reindeer on the way out - part of Dunham’s preparation for Christmas.

Text and photo's from Jean who was worksite leader, with additional photo's from Adrian and Sue.

Tree planting at Styal on Sunday 15th November 2020

14 MNTV volunteers met Vicky in the car park at Styal for a slightly later start time of 10am - great for a Sunday morning lie in!  It was another gorgeous autumnal day of bright sunshine, how lucky we were as it had poured it down with rain first thing in the morning.

The worksite was a field just a short five minute walk from the car park.  We arrived at the field which had been split into zones with markers, zones one and two were in the lower part of the field on a slope facing the mill.  Zone three was higher up the field and more level but poorly drained.

At the start of the workday Vicky gave the introductory COVID safety talk and explained the task was tree planting.  There was a variety of trees to be planted including birch, cherry, willow, elder, holly, guelder rose, goat willow, gorse, hawthorn, hazel and blackthorn.

The first and second zone had already been planted up by volunteer children, the trees in these zones were planted two metres apart in groups of 3 to 4 trees.  Firstly we started by filling in the gaps in zone two which was on a slope and quite difficult to dig because the ground was hard.  The group worked in pairs; one person to dig the planting holes and the other person to plant the trees in the holes and mark with a wooden stick. 

   Top of the field looking towards the mill

The field has recently come back into the Trust because the tenant farmer retired.  It is arable land and not the best quality and is being planted with trees and shrubs for flood prevention 'slowing the flow'.  The field is on a slope which faces the mill.

The tree planting project has been filmed by Countryfile who will be continuing to return to the site to follow its progress.  The trees were purchased with funding from City of Trees and the fencing, sticks and other shrubs were purchased from funding through the Peoples Postcode Lottery.  The overall planting site is approximately 2 hectares.

A socially distanced group tea break...

After finishing zone two we moved onto zone three planting at the top of the field, due to this part of the field having poor drainage it was much easier to dig the planting holes.

However the drainage was an issue in some places, below is a picture of how bad it was...

... so Martin took up the challenge of creating a drainage ditch to reduce the surface water so that we could plant in this area.

... and soon enough the water was draining away... 

Thank you to Sue who took this lovely picture of a stunning tree in zone three of the field.

Zone three planting in action (below).

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By the end of the day we had planted over 1000 trees and the project is ongoing.

8th November 2020 - no workday

Woodland work and clearing ditches at Dunham Massey on Sunday 1st Nov 2020

 A rather overcast morning saw 13 volunteers meet on the car park at Dunham before joining Sophie, N.T. Ranger, in the courtyard to collect more tools and to load all our equipment into her vehicle for transportation to site. It was a good 15 minute walk to where we were working in the upper plantation. 

So after a briefing on safety etc. and an explanation of our tasks for the day we split into 2 groups.

The first group were left to fell small trees which were either too close together or had squirrel damage, the relevant trees had been marked up prior to our arrival. 

The second group were asked to clear leaves, fallen branches and any other detritus from ditches that ran along the edge of the path and down further into the plantation.

Once the ditches were cleared everyone set too on the tree clearance. As we were making such good progress Sophie extended our area of working by marking more trees. 

We met some nice people who stopped and asked what we were doing or where they could find the deer, as they appeared to be hiding today, or just a general chat.

It was a pity that the weather turned against us later in the afternoon but I think everyone enjoyed the day.

Thanks to everyone who came and thanks to Sophie for an excellent work day. 

Text from Christine, who was the work site leader. Photo's from Christine, Adrian and Sue.

Removing fencing and planting trees at Styal on Sunday 25th October 2020

Fifteen of us met Vicky, the Styal Ranger, in the Quarry Bank Mill car park today at 10am. Fortunately we'd all remembered that the hour went back and turned up at the correct time:-)

After a safety, tools and Covid talk, Vicky explained that there were two tasks, removing barb wire fencing and posts in preparation for tree planting, and then planting some trees. A tools talk was given to those that hadn't removed barb wire fencing before, and safety glasses distributed (just in case!). Everyone was so keen to get going that the barb wire was removed very quickly and wound round in coils to be stored for future re-use. 

The posts were fast to follow, some 'snapping' because they were so rotten, whilst others taking a few of us to get them out, sometimes having to be almost dug out. Again, any that could be re-used later were kept separate from those that were rotten.

We stopped for a socially-distanced break mid-morning and Vicky and Sue went off to collect some tree's and canes.  The canes were to be placed by the side of each tree after it had been planted so the location of each tree could still be identified once the meadow grass grew taller than the trees in the Spring. Using canes is a relatively new idea for the National Trust, instead of using plastic tree protectors which not only are made of plastic and therefore not ecological, they also need removing once the tree trunk has grown to a certain circumference, thereby increasing the work load. Although tree-guards made from recyclable material are being trialled, for now the cane seems the best option.

We returned with quite a variety of tree's to plant. Vicky gave a demonstration of how to plant them, each species (other than the oak) were to be planted in groups of 3 or 4 or 5 to make them look more natural when established and were to be planted 2 metres apart (this wasn't so the tree's are social-distancing, along with us!, more that it gives them enough space to get established before they are thinned out in future years).

Once the other species were planted, the oak would be used to infill the gaps between them. 

Working in pairs, with one person digging the hole, then standing back while the other planted the tree and heeled it in, we'd planted most of them by lunchtime. Vicky collected, probably around 100 more trees and canes after lunch, including some different species.

We'd completely finished soon after 3pm and reckoned that we'd planted around 600 tree's between us. We loaded up Vicky's trailer and walked back to the car park to go home. It was great to do something 'constructive' for a change rather than the destructive rhody bashes and tree thinning that we often do because we love doing them.

On the whole, the weather was ok, mainly dry, although we had a bit of a shower  but it resulted in a double rainbow, so no complaints there - to be honest, it was just fabulous to be outdoors, doing something useful and being able to socially-distantly chat to other people and share a laugh:-)

For interest, this is a list of the species planted: Pedunculate Oak, Crab apple, Scots pine, Hornbeam, Sweet chestnut, Hazel, Wych elm, Small leaved lime, Silver birch, Downy birch, Rowan and Aspen.

Thanks to Adrian for additional photo's.

Tree thinning at Dunham Massey on Sunday 11th October 2020

14 eager MNTV volunteers met Craig in the car park at Dunham Massey for our second workday since lockdown.  This was my first work day at Dunham Massey for quite a few years so I was eager to see how the top tree plantation was getting on since we planted it up over 10 years ago.

The weather was kind to us and it was a beautiful autumnal day, there were lots of visitors in the parkland enjoying the fresh air and hoping to catch a glimpse of the deer.  I took a photo of this deer enjoying the sunshine at lunchtime.

On reaching the plantation Craig gave us our COVID safety talk and then explained the task.  We were to thin out the trees - the trees were already marked up with red dots so we knew which ones to thin out and chop down.  

Pictured below is the plantation before we started working.

Trees marked up with red dots ready for thinning and chopping down.

The group all split up so that we were working well apart from each other; one group of people thinned out trees and another group dragged branches and stacked them into habitat piles.

The plantation was quite overgrown when we started and some of the trees had trunks that were too thick to cut down with our bowsaws so we thinned the branches on those ready for Craig to bring in his chainsaw later in the day.  Pictured below is one of the smaller trees that could be felled.

 

There was plenty of wildlife in the plantation.  We saw ladybirds, caterpillars, frogs and lots of horse chestnuts.

Time for a break and some cake....

This is a great example of how to tell the age of a tree, each ring equals one year of its life, I wonder how old this one was?

At 3.15pm we called it a day ready for the walk back to the car park.  Pictured below is the plantation after we had thinned out and chopped down, it is lovely to see the sun shining through.

There is more work to be done here on future workdays.... until next time.