Birch thinning at Alderley Edge on Sunday 27th October 2024

With a joint workday with Merseyside planned at Bickerton Hill near Nantwich, Daniel was excited to be there, unfortunately Ranger Sam had us coming in November rather than October and we had to think again.  We said to Merseyside we have asked Dunham to host us, Dunham said they couldn't so Ally contacted what seems to have become our back up worksite, Alderley Edge.  They immediately said Yes!  Thank you Issy!  Workday sorted!  Daniel was so looking forward to the workday that when his flu got the better of him another worksite leader was needed.  In stepped Jenny.

Here are Jenny's words from the day:

7 of us meet at the Alderley Edge carpark, on a cold but lovely bright sunny day. 

We walked to the tool store and collected tree poppers, bow saws and loppers.  We then went across the road to the woods to pull birch saplings.  It was lovely to see how things have changed since we first started work in this area.  There are now several oak and fir saplings, bramble, fern, moss, bilberries and we even found a few frogs. 

The drainage ditches have silted up, so the land is a bit wetter, but you no longer have to jump ditches of standing water.

We spent the day using our hands and tree poppers to pull up the saplings.   One or two trees were big enough to need sawing down and digging out.  We left them all in a few habitat piles around the site.  The entrance to the site was overgrown, so we cut back vegetation along the track leading to the woods so a tractor and trailer could get down it.