We have started 2019 with a day with the Friends of Spud Wood. At this Woodland Trust site, we today helped the Friends with the preparation of a hedge for a forthcoming hedgelaying course, and then some coppicing within the wood. We were sustained, as always here, by plenty of tea and parkin – a great start to the year!
Posted in Coppicing, Hedgelaying, Woodland management | Tagged Friends of Spud Wood, Woodland Trust |
Well, our activities for 2018 are now over. Our last two outings have been with the Friends of Longford Park on 25th November and with the Friends of Chorlton Meadows on 9th December.
In Longford Park, we helped the Friends with a number of activities for the maintenance of the wildlife garden including seeding wood anemone, foxglove and yellow rattle; coppicing hazel; removing blackthorn which was invading the grassland area; and managing areas of dogwood, rose and flag iris near the pond.
At Chorlton Meadows, the Friends are currently in the process of trying to restore the only remaining area of old grassland. The aim is to re-introduce cattle grazing once the new fence has been completed. Sadly, many years of neglect has resulted in several species invading the field, not least bramble. The cattle will keep the invasive plant species down and allow the rarer plant species to thrive once again. SACV members spent the day working with the Friends in removing the bramble.
Hard work, but well worth it and our efforts were rewarded with an early Christmas soirée after the task, kindly hosted (as in previous years) by Elaine. Thanks to Elaine for the perfect end to the day!
And of course big thanks to everyone who has come out to volunteer with us in 2018!
Posted in Coppicing, Grassland, Meadows, Ponds and lakes | Tagged Friends of Chorlton Meadows, Friends of Longford Park |
Our last two activities have been in Chorlton Meadows (Sunday 28th October) and Birch Moss Covert (Sunday 11th November). The first of these was to help the Friends of Chorlton Meadows with their work on the reed beds, maintaining an area of open water which is important for wildlife.
Next, at Birch Moss Covert, we worked with the Cheshire Wildlife Trust volunteers to prevent woodland encroaching on an important area of low heathland heather.
For our next activity, we look forward to joining the Friends of Longford Park on Sunday 25th November!
Posted in Heathland, Ponds and lakes, Reed beds | Tagged Cheshire Wildlife Trust, Friends of Chorlton Meadows |
This past weekend was our final residential weekend of the year, working for the Peak Park Conservation Volunteers. On Saturday we were on the shores of Tittesworth Reservoir, creating a willow hedge to prevent walkers and dogs from disturbing an area using by ground-nesting birds. On a very wet Sunday we were at a different nearby site, this time enhancing the habitat for willow tits by creating standing deadwood. An excellent trip – in spite of the rain and a recalcitrant fire alarm in our accommodation!
Update, February 2019: we returned to our willow hedge during our first weekend away of 2019, and extended it further along the shore.
Posted in Ponds and lakes, Willow structures, Woodland management | Tagged Peak Park Conservation Volunteers | 2 Comments »
This past Sunday we once again joined Martin of the Cheshire East Rangers to carry out some heathland work at lovely Tegg’s Nose. We were removing gorse bushes that would otherwise swamp the heather and blueberry on the slopes here.
We also found some sort of translucent yellow fungus that we couldn’t identify (anyone?!).
Posted in Heathland | Tagged Cheshire East Rangers, Tegg's Nose Country Park |
This past Sunday (2 September) we were out helping City of Trees at Urmston Meadows with some habitat management: thinning out trees, mostly willow, as part of a larger project which aims to improve local conditions for water voles. It is thought that there are already water voles at this site and the work aims to enhance the conditions for them.
Many thanks to the new volunteers who came along – it was good to meet you all!
Posted in Coppicing, Woodland management | Tagged City of Trees, Urmston Meadows |
As in previous years, today we were once again out with Cheshire Wildlife Trust volunteers at Hogswood Covert and then Brookheys Covert (sites now managed by the National Trust), continuing the battle against the invasive Himalayan balsam in these woodlands. It was pleasing to see that there was less balsam to be found than in the past, so the battle against the invader is gradually gaining ground!
Posted in Invasive species | Tagged Cheshire Wildlife Trust, National Trust |
Many thanks to the small but dedicated band of volunteers who made it out today to help renovate a set of worn-out steps at Chorlton Water Park. What an improvement!
Posted in Steps | Tagged Chorlton Water Park |
Today we were back at Hollinwood Scout Camp – the development of the camp and woodland has progressed apace since we were here about a year ago. We did some clearing work around the “main camp” part of the site, particularly for the removal of the invasive Himalayan balsam and in preparation for further ongoing management of this area. We were glad of the shelter of the trees in today’s heat, and of course for the excellent supply of tea and biscuits!
Posted in Invasive species, Woodland management | Tagged Hollinwood Scout Camp |
This month saw SACV’s first international outing! We spent a long weekend in Ireland and joined in with voluntary work being done by Mountain Meitheal, a group of environmental volunteers who have for the past fifteen years undertaken conservation and restoration projects on mountain and forest tracks and have won awards for their work.
Our volunteer Mike is a past member of Mountain Meitheal and nobly organised the trip over to Ireland for nine SACV members. In glorious weather, we worked with Mountain Meitheal on path maintenance and waterbar construction on Three Rock Mountain (Saturday 5th) and were taken on an instructive guided walk (Sunday 6th) around Glendalough to see some of Mountain Meitheal’s past projects.
It was a great weekend. Very big thanks to Mountain Meitheal who gave us a warm welcome, contributed very generously to the cost of our accommodation and were informative and engaging guides to the local area. And of course – very big thanks to Mike who came up with the idea and planned the weekend, booked the ferries and youth hostels, drove the minibus and pulled the whole thing together!
Posted in Paths, Residential weekends |
SMCV 