Butterley Reservoir

Ben, Philip and Peter in front of some our trees

Today, Dave, Geoff, Philip, Ben and Peter visited Butterley reservoir and cleared bracken from around trees planted on both sides of the reservoir by CVTS over the last six or seven years. We certainly saved a few young oaks being swamped by the primeval weed and helped some more mature saplings. Many trees are now doing well enough to no longer be disturbed by the bracken and in time, will replace it completely. We also noticed a lot of self-seeded trees springing up which we helped along their way. We also did a temporary fix on a broken style at the edge of a conifer plantation planted by Yorkshire Water. The weather was warm and mostly sunny, the flies and midges quite bad in places and there was no cake or biscuits of any kind. Despite this it was a good morning.

Dave

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.