Bracken bashing at Butterley Reservoir

An ancient tree, plus some young Birch we planted in the foreground.

Lovely morning, and a glorious spot up on the hillside above Butterley. Marred only by the midges, flies, and the fact that the weeks cake was chocolate... with mint in it. Not universally appreciated that, well it has to happen sometimes. We slogged around on the hillside bashing back bracken to allow natural regeneration of this side of the reservoir, which has got scraps of ancient woodland on it, and is regenerating since it was properley fenced off by us some years ago. Again, some evidence of deer browsing as quite a lot of Oaks have made it to the top of the tubes and no further. I found a freshly bloody rabbits leg, and Heidi found a frog. We saw lots of Kestrels. We were, myself, Heidi, Ben, Philip, Guy and Mandy.

Philip finds a very tiny self seeded Birch

Ragwort removal at Fieldhouse

Before...

... and after.

   

This morning myself, Ann and Philip spent 2 hours removing Ragwort at Fieldhouse. Philip, Dave and Ben did a similar stint on Thursday night. Quite hard work, in warm weather. Nice morning though.

Bracken bashing at Crosland Edge

Before bashing

After bashing

Stephen bashing, Guy in distance.

This is a lovely south facing site near Meltham, and we planted 500 trees here this last winter. Unfortunately Bracken abounds, and was up to chest height. So in order to give the young trees some light myself, Philip, Guy, Stephen, Ben, Neil and Duncan went round and knocked back the Bracken. The rain held off, but we were all soaked anyway as the undergrowth was sodden, and it was quite warm. Midges didn't seem too bad though. And it was a job worth doing. Coconut crunch cake at break time.

On a less positive note we found two existing oak trees on site that had had their bark stripped by deer. One was completely ring barked and will die. The other had been stripped on one side only.

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.