How to identify Ash dieback

The noble few soldier on at Butterley

Jess, Remy and Vashti

We were somewhat diminished today, but basically all the best people were there! Myself, Vashti, Remy, Stephen, Cath and Jess. Duncan and Harvey were working, but we think they headed off to Scammonden in the end. The weather was kind to us, only turning squally as we left the pub later on. We finished off planting at Butterley, which means this year we have so far planted 870 trees up there. Cake was chocolate chip sponge. Remy had 2 pieces.

Where birds go to die - Butterley

Guy (in Zombie apocalypse snood), Stephen, Ben,Vashti, Peter, Remy, Steve(just visible behind) Andrew

Another morning at Butterley. At the spot the that we like to call "Where birds go to die". We were: myself, Guy, Vashti, Andrew, Ben, Stephen, Peter T, Steve and Remy.  We carried on planting the TCV bare-rooted stock, and ended up leaving 75 Oak healed in below Schofields Barn, and around 75 deer guards on site. 50 are in the barn, and some scraps are concealed up where we were planting. Could possibly do with taking another 20 deer stakes up when we go to finish these off. Reclaiming stakes and guards seems to inevitably lead to some stakes breaking, so we have more recycled guards than stakes.

If we get more trees for this site then Guy's suggestion is that we continue planting up behind, and to the right of this spot, in the Molinia grass, joining up with previous planting in the clough.

We encountered the Bradford Ramblers group while we were up there. I did my best to recruit some, but I don't think I was successful.

Spoke to Ron in the Sair and confirmed the mid season meeting for Saturday 15th Feb. And gave him his invite to the 50th anniversary party.

Again we could see the Senior Section off in the distance, Brian, Trevor, Dianne and Peter.

And we had apologies from Philip (bad back), Cath (bad cat), Geoff (bad sleep) and Dave (bad bike).
No word from Jess (so, bad girl).

Foggy Monday morning

For a bit of fresh air and exercise I went up to Scammonden and retrieved 64 deer stakes, and 43 deer tubes.

Bare rooted at Butterley

The folks on the hillside.

One of the tags from our TCV trees.

This week we began planting 450 trees that came to us courtesy of the TCV Big Tree Plant initiative. Unlike our usual supplies these came bare rooted, which caused some consternation. Bare rooted require a slightly different planting technique, and care has to be taken that the tree roots don't dry out. We were: myself, Stephen, Peter T, Geoff, Duncan (and Harvey the dog), Remy, Cath, Vashti, Jess, Andrew, Philip, and Ben. We think we planted around 200 trees, but it is harder to keep count of the bare rooted sort, as they come in big sacks, rather than in handy packs of 15. As a note for next week, we left 95 deer stakes, 120 deer guards, and around 45 hare stakes and guards on site.

Once again we could see the Senior Section on a far hillside, removing guards at Marsden Golf course.

Fetching, carrying and de-guarding

Everyone in awe of Philip's knot-tying skills.

While we wait for our next deliveries of trees we occupied ourselves by reclaiming deer guards from Scammonden (Duncan, Harvey the dog, Geoff, Dave) and transporting new stakes and guards onto the Butterley site (myself, Vashti, Hap, Stephen, Philip, Ben, Jess and Andrew). From Butterley we could see Brian, Trevor and Dianne working away on a far hillside removing guards. Butterley is a great site, just so flipping far from any road.