Ten volunteers spent today at Styal where the main task was moving a lot of brash that had been cut as part of some recent hedge laying. The brash was then stacked next to a pond to form a habitat. We also removed a small piece of old fencing. Ranger Ceara was happy with our work.
Martin
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| Some of the brash |
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| The cleared field |
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| The new habitat |
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| The little bit of fence removed |
A cohort of five MNTVers drove to Formby on a cool but surprisingly bright March morning to meet Nathan, our Ranger boss for the day. The job was filling in holes - a change from digging them! - in the woods just a five minute walk from the Countryside offices. This part of the woods is a SSSI and Nature England has given permission for a small Wild Bike Trail where bike (not motorbike!) enthusiasts can build jumps.
It’s a multi-use area and the rules for the trail are quite strict - digging holes is allowed but some were so deep tree roots were being undermined posing a danger to walkers as well as the trees. But at least the jumps being built were nearby so we ‘just’ had to put the soil back where it came from. Hopefully the trees will survive a few more years now. In other areas, walking paths were being built up to provide bike tracks. After more shovelling the surfaces were suitable for walking again.
During the day some of the bikers and their parents came over concerned their fun was being spoiled. It gave Nathan an opportunity to do some education and remind them the area is protected and is for mixed use of walkers as well as bikers.
Jean
Today's workday was cancelled because of snow lying on the ground and the bad weather forecast. Given the short notice we were not able to find an alternative work venue.
MNTV Committee
Nine volunteers met up with ranger Ceara for a day of reseeding some grassed areas and a bit of tree/sapling thinning.
So far so good, until Ceara explained. First off the two Andys went to look at dismantling two bike parking stands which in fact weren't even fixed into the ground, so job soon done.
We were told what trees needed cutting back and pruning so some of us got stuck into that. What we didn't know was that before we could reseed we had to rake up all the fallen leaves and acorns. This was quite a large area which runs between the bottom car park and the path down to the mill. Undaunted we set to with Jenny and Jean using petrol driven leaf blowers and as each of the other jobs finished we all worked at raking the leaves.
In fact Ceara had four vanloads each with six builders bags full of leaves to take round to the compost. We managed to clear all the leaves but only managed to reseed half of it.
Thanks to Ceara for a good workday and to my colleagues who worked hard doing a back breaking job.
Christine
Eight of us spent today at Lyme Park, rhodybashing in Lantern Wood.
