Scrub bashing at Dunham Massey on Sunday 19th January 2019

Today saw us return to Dunham Massey for our first workday in over three years.  We were last there on 9th October 2016 and it was great to be back.  Our return coincided with the recent appointment of Craig Buckley as Lead Ranger.  We had another nice surprise too, with the appearance on her first workday for several years of Anne Yates, one of our longest serving members.

The main job Craig had for us was clearing scrub from inside the perimeter fence of a tree plantation halfway down Charcoal Drive.  The scrub (bracken, small saplings and brambles) was being cut down to take weight off the wire fence and so increase its life.

The plantation is securely fenced and so is one area at Dunham that is deer free, but that's not to say we didn't see wildlife.  Christine H saw two foxes chasing each other and Christine B, Oliver, Daniel and Anne enjoyed a robin's company for half an hour.  There were lots of passersby on the path beside that edge of the plantation and several asked us what we were doing and why.

Brewtime was taken and 11 and we had the choice of two cakes: Sultana & Orange traybake (Daniel) and gluten free Peach Melba cake (Anne).  Both got tried and enjoyed.

We had finished the scrub bashing by lunchtime (1pm) and so afterwards Craig set us on another task which was cutting down or cutting limbs off the trees marked (by green paint spots) for clearance.  A lot of these trees had squirrel damage (bark gnawed off at ground level), and Craig said his ranger team would be culling grey squirrels this year.

Our last job of the day was to collect up wooden posts that were no longer in use and pile them by the plantation entrance.  On our walk back to Charcoal Drive we passed an enormous 250-year-old beech tree that Craig had recently had felled.  It was infected by three types of fungi and was in danger of falling over.

Once we had walked the half mile back to the carpark Craig took this group photo (Anne, Christine B and Oliver not shown because they had to leave after lunchtime).  

It was an excellent workday and we look forward to our next visit to Dunham on 8th March.

Daniel