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

Footpath work at Speke on Sunday 20th August 2023

We had a bit of a lie in today with a 10:30 start but on arriving early at 10 we were surprised to be met by four Merseyside volunteers who unfortunately thought it was a 10 o'clock start!

Not to worry, Ian came out to meet us early anyway and started to explain today's job.  We were to be working in the woods next to the car park and as it has been at least ten years since they had laid the footpath it had lost its outline.  They are now starting a major project to reinstate/redefine all their paths.  So with loppers, spades and brushes plus Andy S's thrashers we set to work.  Being rather optimistic we thought we could work through until an early lunch seeing as it was a later start.  Wrong!  It was such hard work and very warm that we caved and stopped for a brew.

Footpath before ...

... and after

Throughout the morning we were having to stop to let the many dog walkers past but by afternoon that had quietened down somewhat although the car park was very busy.  We started to lose our path a few times but when Ian joined us just as we were ready to finish for the day he was amazed how much better it looked.  It appears that the many years of people and dogs wanting to take the shortest route had caused the original path to be lost and overgrown with brambles etc.

Thanks to Ian for a tough but enjoyable workday, thanks to our friends from the Merseyside group who we worked alongside and thanks to my colleagues for their hard work.  Also wishing Ian all the best for his forthcoming operation.

Christine

Molinia tussock bashing at Marsden Moor on Sunday 13th August 2023

A select group of three travelled to Marsden today to work with ranger Alice James digging out molinia on Holme Moor near the rifle range.  It was our first visit to Marsden since August 2016 (!) and the first visit for two of us.  Daniel knew of Marsden as being the start point of the 25-mile Marsden to Edale hike but hadn't done a workday there before.  The rangers office and adjacent visitors centre is in the Old Goods Yard building beside the railway line.  It took a bit of finding but we were all there on time.

We drove to the worksite in the 4x4 and worked from 10:30 to 12:30 with a short break for cake halfway through.  The molinia carpets the moor and we were digging it out to form fire breaks to halt the spread of wild fires.  It's shallow rooted and was easy to dig out using mattocks.  Marsden has suffered a lot of fires recently - seven already this year said Alice (!) and an extensive devastating one in 2019.

To our disappointment it began to rain heavily at 12:00 (not forecast) so at 12:30 we drove back to the rangers office and had lunch indoors.  Jack was wet through so left at this point.  After lunch Daniel, Adrian and Alice drove over to the car park at Buckstones (junction of A640 and B6114) where Alice emptied the litter bin and we did a litter pick.  The views across the moors and over to Holme Moss/Black Hill from the car park were sensational and you could see why it is such a popular spot.

Daniel

Balsam bashing at Dunham Massey on Sunday 6th August 2023

Today 12 volunteers turned out to help Natalie with balsam clearance at Dunham Massey.

We met on the car park where Natalie explained that we were doing a second sweep of the balsam, as they have had numerous groups in, including ourselves, and really wanted to get it back under control after being given free run during the covid lockdowns.

We started in a compound behind the visitor centre which was a bit tricky in places due to a stream, brambles and a bit of banking.  We finished this section just as the rain started so stopped for an early brew.  Natalie very kindly took us into their brew area above the visitor centre.  What luxury!

After that we continued with our sweeping up until we came across some rather large areas of balsam which had been missed originally, probably because it was deep in brambles, nettles and fern plus any other tripping hazard that grows.

Although we didn't manage to clear all of this we had a pretty good try and Natalie was very happy with what we had achieved - plus now she knows where to send her next group to work.

Thanks to Natalie for looking after us and for the two pizzas she brought us at lunchtime from the new pizza oven that they have at Dunham.  They were very nice and much appreciated.  Thanks too to my colleagues for their hard work in some difficult conditions.  That is probably our last balsam bash for this year as you could see the seed pods forming.

Christine