Wholestone Moor and Nursery work

Philip and Ben at Wholestone Moor

We all met at the Nursery first thing. Philip, Ben and Geoff went off to Wholestone Moor to check on planting there from 3 years ago, and reclaimed some stakes and guards while there. Dave took some rubbish to the tip in his trailer. Myself and Ann did some Nursery weeding and then went up to Golcar to fetch some trees kindly grown for us from seed by Mr Bamforth at Town End. We all went back at the Nursery for homemade bakewell tart, and then some more tidying up and weeding. And of course finished at the Sair, where they were preparing for Ron's birthday celebrations.

Three wise monkeys at the Sair.

Ragwort removal at Fieldhouse 2

Tidying up the entrance

Geoff, Philip and Duncan spent the morning at Fieldhouse removing the last of the ragwort and also clearing round a few of the more swamped perimeter saplings. It was hot and humid but satisfying to get it finished. Ben and Dave stayed at the nursery doing various maintenance jobs there. Cake was kindly baked and delivered by Ann -  a very tasty fruit / oat type of affair.

Philip prunes.

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.

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.