Rhody bashing at Hayfield on Sunday 29th January 2023

Today's workday was at Hayfield and was Martin's first as worksite leader.  Five of us joined him for a day's rhodybashing on the steep slope above Park Hall.  This is where we worked last 16th October.  The area had been cut by others and we were mostly burning their cuttings along with snipping some young regrowth.

We had two fires going and got through a good bit, but there is still plenty left.  Some peacocks came by to inspect our work.

Martin

Rhody bash at Lyme Park on Sunday 22nd January 2023

Nine of us joined Ranger Issy for a great day of Rhody bashing at Lyme Park.

We met in the main car park and walked up into Lantern Wood, where we were shown the area of rhododendrons that needed cutting and burning.  We split off into small groups, one group getting the fire going while the rest of us, using bowsaws and loppers, started cutting down the Rhody and dragging it near to the fire, where another group were cutting it down into smaller pieces to feed the fire. Fortunately we also had the use of a leaf blower which really helped get the fire going:-)

There was snow on the ground. It was lovely crisp and chilly day.

As we finished for the day, we turned the fire in and put the orange netting around the dying embers so if anyone came across it, it would be obvious that it was a controlled fire. Ranger Issy stayed with it longer and said she would pop back before going home to ensure it was safe, so we walked back down to our cars.

A great day, great company plus we got a lot done:-)

The workday was led by the two Sue's!!

Thanks to Adrian for the photos.

Birch thinning at Alderley Edge on Sunday 15th January 2023

Nine of us assembled in the Wizard car park at 9:30 for another day of birch thinning on the heathland the other side of the main road.  We continued the work we'd done on 11th December.  It did not look like anyone had been on site since then - the fire site was taped off just as we'd left it.  When we collected the tools from the rangers' toolstore we met ranger Sam who was off to do a day's tree felling with a few volunteers.

Thankfully the rain stopped at 10 as forecast and the rest of the day was fine.  Neil, Chris and Andy H got the fire lit and kept it going with bursts of air from a battery-powered leaf blower.  The rest of us poppered and mattocked the birches out of the ground, carried them to the fire then loppered them into burnable lengths.

Worksite before ...

... and after

Jenny joined us at 12 and had brought her petrol-powered leaf blower.  With two blowers going we kept the fire roaring and soon began to run out of birch to burn.  We continued until 2:30pm when we loaded the last of the cuttings onto the fire, let the fire burn down and then taped off the fire site.  Sam came over to talk to us at 2 and was very happy with our work.  We have now cleared all the birch in this area and so the next group will need to establish a new fire site near to the next significant batch of birch.

Thanks to everyone for coming along and for their hard work and good company.  This was our last workday at Alderley Edge for a while.  On 19th February we are at Bosley Cloud, not Alderley Edge, doing heathland work with the Congleton Volunteers.

Daniel

Fencing and vegetation clearance at Styal on Sunday 8th January 2023

Happy new year everyone!

Even before the ranger had arrived Neil had started work. He was replacing the blades on the Fiskar loppers.

Neil persuaded the manufacturer to help our volunteering efforts and send us some new blades for our favourite loppers.  Now we don’t have to fight over the good ones.

Ceara arrived with some spades and fence posts.  Contractors had been in during the week and cut back vegetation in front of one of the fences by the carpark.  Unfortunately the ivy had been holding up some of the posts so our job was to replace the broken ones.  We didn’t have far to walk, as the fence was just by where we had parked.  We started by clearing the vegetation on the other side of the fence.

Vegetation before ...

... and after

Then it started to rain so we decided it was time for drinks and cake.

We tested out the shelter by the education centre and we stayed nice and dry.  The rain soon stopped so we went back to work replacing fence posts.  We replaced seven posts and four rails.

Fencing before ...

... and after

We finished the fencing work just before 1pm so headed back to the shelter for lunch.  In the afternoon Ceara gave us a quick tour of the carpark verge, pointing out what trees to keep and what to take out (hopefully we got it right).  The idea is to give more light to the plants below so more flowers will grow.  Neil also tackled the drainage around the carpark scraping out the autumn leaves.  It had rained a lot recently and the water wasn’t flowing away properly.

Victor decided to thoroughly test the new loppers on the holly tree that was growing round a lamp post.

Holly before ...

... and after

The rest of us tackled the trees round the verge.  No cars were harmed in the process.  The brash was tucked behind the bank out of sight leaving a wildlife habitat.

Verge before ...

... and after

At the end of the day we posed with our new tools, tired but satisfied we had made a difference.

Jenny