This was the first work party of the autumn season. We enjoyed fine weather, with enough shade inside the wood to make life comfortable. The main task was thinning young Sycamore and Norway Maple, which are rather invasive and a threat to biodiversity. By taking out some of these, other species will have a better chance of growing to maturity. One group tackled an area to the west of the central path in zone 3, and a second group tackled an area further south in zone 4. Tree poppers were tried for uprooting some of the smaller specimens, but very dry ground in places meant that this was not always successful, so most of the work involved cutting down trees of various sizes up to about 12cm diameter. Bill was busy with several other tasks: cutting back nettles near the southern end of the main path, where it had become very narrow; sawing off a hazel stump arising from where Streetwise had removed a precarious tree from the den building area; and putting white paint on the logs that Streetwise had deployed to cover the badger sett holes for safety reasons. As usual, a certain amount of litter was collected.
Chrissie kindly gave a short talk at the start of the work party about the problems of litter and anti-social behaviour, and also spent time with our newer recruits telling them more about the work of the Friends. While litter picking she also approached a fair number of walkers and gave out 8 NeighbourWood Watch cards.
Volunteer hours: 33.5 hours.
Thanks to all
