Rhodybash near Park Hall, Hayfield, on Sunday 24th September 2023

A small number of volunteers gathered at Hayfield for a day's rhododendron bashing on the moor above Park Hall.  The area is one that has been cleared of major growth by volunteers and machines and is now subject to regrowth from seed.  It was this regrowth that we were clearing.  As the rhododendron was rather small we just filled builders bags for later collection and disposal.

At the end of the day we had filled all the sacks and cleared quite a large area.  It is worth noting that some of the bushes were flowering, rather late in the year as this is usually a plant that flowers in spring or early summer.

Adrian

Clearing willow trees at Quarry Bank Mill on Sunday 17th September 2023

Seven of us started the day with a walk across the Quarry Bank Mill site to Bank House farm.  Beside the track there was a copse of willow trees which had drained a shallow pond.  Our task was to cut the trees down and remove as many roots as possible to prevent regrowth.

Our first surprise was a barn owl that flew out of the trees as we approached.  Ceara, our ranger for the day, thought it might have taken shelter there when it rained overnight and not woken up to go home before dawn.

We passed all the equipment (bowsaws, loppers, mattocks, spades and winch over the fence) as well as the essential cake.

We made short work of removing all the branches down to waist height.  A lot of that work was done by break time.

After the break some of the group moved to removing the stumps.  It’s hard work, first digging a ring round the trunk and cutting any large roots then attaching the winch and pulling the stump out.

We had a stop for lunch, then got back to removing the stumps.  After a few hours we had made a huge difference to the area and some good winter rain should fill up the pond again.

We walked back to the cars, tired but proud of how much we had achieved.

Jenny

Log splitting and stacking at Formby on Sunday 10th September 2023

Today, Adrian, Daniel, Gaynor and Jenny travelled to Formby and spent the day log splitting and stacking with ranger Chris.

Unusually we got to use a piece of machinery, Mr Japa, who at the start of play was wheeled out of his garage, fed with diesel and hydraulic oil then set to work.  Chris gave us a comprehensive safety talk before any sawing and splitting began!

Five of us was an ideal number for the task because it took four people to operate Mr Japa - two to feed logs in at one end, one in the middle to operate the chainsaw and a fourth to fill the wheelbarrow with the split logs - and one to stack the logs.  We all wore ear defenders as a precaution which meant communication was by sign language!  

The split logs were about a foot in length and it was possible to stack three logs across each shelf then build the rows up.  The shed was positioned in such a way that the prevailing wind blows through it from side to side and all logs stacked so far have dried quickly.  The logs have to have less than 18% moisture to be sellable and Chris said that recent moisture readings were 0%!

We finished work at 3pm at which time all the readily accessible tree trunks had been chopped and the woodshed was almost full.  The next job will be to bag up the dried logs ready for sale.

Thanks to Chris for organising an interesting day's work and for telling us at break times about the plans for the Formby estate.

Daniel

Birch clearance at Chirk Castle on Sunday 3rd September 2023

We had a lovely sunny day at Chirk today removing birch trees from a woodland pasture.  The area had previously been grazed by ponies which kept the birch growth down, but they have been away for a few years allowing the birch to re-establish.  The ponies are planned to make a return next year.  The aim of the birch clearance was to help re-establish the woodland pasture, increasing biodiversity by maintaining  a low level grassland in amongst the surrounding woodland.

We had seven volunteers from the Manchester group along with five from the Merseyside group.  The ranger Keith was happy with the work we completed.  A couple of before and after pictures below.

Martin