Tidying up and reclaiming materials at Scammonden

Horrible weather, but myself, Philip, Guy, Ben and Peter braved the elements to go up to Scammonden. First we went across our most recent planting and straightened up guards which had been blown about by the wind. After that (and a short break for homemade walnut cake) we visited an area planted in March 2011, and retrieved some guards from failed plantings. We brought back about 40 deer guards and stakes, which was very worthwhile given how much they cost.

Deer here?

BBC Radio 4 documentary about how deer are the new urban fox. Several CVTS members have spotted deer in the Valley recently.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01bwp2d/
Bambi has never had it so good. British deer numbers are rising, taking a heavy toll on forestry and ground-nesting birds.

Return to Pasture Wood

Geoff, filming, Ben and Dave. And Marsden down below.

Gorgeous sunny day, and we went up to Pasture Wood again, myself, Ben, Geoff, Dave and Duncan. It is a big site, so there is still plenty of work to be done up there removing old guards and stakes. Geoff had his camera and was doing more filming for his documentary. We took 200 hare guards back to the nursery, and left a number more on site. Cake was homemade apricot sponge, though Duncan missed out because he had gone rogue and dissappeared off to a far flung corner of the site.

Remember folks, 11am always means break and cake time. And it is a volunteers duty to be nearby when cake is dished out. It saves me having to carry it back down the hill.

Pasture Wood again

Ben, Dave and Dianne try to make the trees look bigger by sitting down.

First official day of the Summer seasons work, and Philip, Dave, Ben, Duncan and Dianne went back to Pasture Wood above Marsden to take off more guards. 125 more stakes were taken back to the Nursery.

It would seem that some trees have been deliberately cut back, we think by someone trying to preserve a particular view from their house. This happens sometimes, we do try to be sensitive to people living near to where we plant, but its always disappointing when someone takes matters into their own hands rather than talk to us.  On the plus side, there are still several thousand trees up there growing well (if slowly). The Holly in the photo are notoriously slow, but are growing.