Nine of us met Ranger Jason on a cold and wet morning then hiked up to the current work area in Lantern Wood. There’s a regular volunteer rhody bashing group during the week who cut down a lot but in the wet conditions they fall behind with the burning. This is the third such session this winter and it’ll continue like this until bird nesting season.
We started cutting down the piles of brash into more burnable size while Jason started the fire. But we had the same problem with the weather, very dank, so it took a long time to get a fire under way. In fact, a second fire was abandoned and we concentrated on building up the first.
Jason told us about the Trust’s plan for the woods which is developing over a 50 years+ time period. The wood was originally moorland that one of the previous occupants of Lyme Park planted with pine trees. This gradually dried out the soil. The current project, estimated to continue for another six years, will clear the rhododendron and the ground should start to slowly revert back to peat. A few pines will be left to create a wildlife corridor connecting the surrounding moorland.
On the walk back down to the carpark we met some of the Highland cattle now resident at Lyme. They seemed a lot happier with the weather conditions than we were.
Jean
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