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.