Summer one day, autumn the next

Another two weeks have gone by since the last working party, but in the meantime the team leaders met with our two principal contacts with NWT on 22^nd, to talk through issues around the cutting programme. The Countryside Stewardship funding arrangement is the successor to the Higher Level Stewardship scheme, our bit of which expired last autumn. It turns out that CS is widely criticised for its inflexibility, and the penalties for not keeping to the imposed schedule can be severe. Of most immediate relevance is the deadline of 30^th September for the completion of the cutting of the central part of the Common; this is required in order to continue to knock back the reeds which are encroaching into that valuable species-rich patch. The balancing act is to meet that target whilst minimising as much as possible the impact on the glorious flowering plants there – in particular, Grass of Parnassus, Devil’s Bit Scabious and Eyebright. We have already cut back as much of the reeds as possible, and pulled by hand those growing amongst the aforementioned flowers; the final cut will be left to as close to the end of September as can be managed, to give the plants the best chance of setting seed. And, of course, a healthy and diverse plant community leads to a rich diversity of insects and other invertebrates, and they in turn are bird food.

The next challenge will be the areas to the north of the Beck, beside Warren Road. We cut each half on alternate years, and this year it is the turn of the section closer to Lower Street, known imaginatively as Area A. It is a massive tangle of vegetation, beautifully rich in plant life, but also very hard work to deal with, especially in warm weather. It, and the even more excitingly named Area B on the other side of the boardwalk, is becoming dominated by an invasive garden escapee, Michaelmas Daisy, which along with the spreading reeds will also be cut on Area B. This is all a lot of work for our magnificent volunteers in a shortened period of time, and it is likely that NWT will need to provide extra assistance if the deadline is to be hit.

The boardwalk is needing increasing amounts of maintenance and repairs, and we were pleased to learn that there is a team within NWT with considerable expertise, which can be drawn on if the need arises.

Another big job to be undertaken by a contractor on NWT’s behalf is the restoration of The Pit, which should be dug out in the next few weeks. We can then all look forward to it looking like a pond again.

The next working party was on Sunday 1^st September – the first day of meteorological autumn apparently, but still pretty warm after the early morning freshness. Your increasingly irregular correspondent having bunked off again, it fell to Team Leader Julie to gamely pick up the blogging baton:

Six of us took part in Saturday’s preparations for Sunday’s full working party. There was some deliberation as to what we were to do.....

Anyway, once agreed, the remaining reed in the corner of Area G was soon dispatched ready to be moved on Sunday.

 We obviously left the wildflower patch that Margaret has lovingly hand reeded and which now is full of Devils Bit Scabious and Grass of Parnassus...

Area A met us with a huge area of Michaelmas Daisy which seems to have almost shot up and spread overnight..

So it was decided that this had to go first in this area. So Grizzly was put to work tackling this, whilst the rest of us cut back the scrub around the preferred winch site. The result was a clear winch site

and lots of reed and daisy to be stacked by Sunday’s willing volunteers...

For the main event on Sunday, sixteen willing volunteers turned out in the glorious sunshine. Warm enough to be working in, but not so hot as past sessions have been.

The majority set to clearing the heaps of vegetation cut by Grizzly yesterday... unfortunately the two team leaders had failed to put a key piece of winch equipment in the wheelbarrow, so sheets were hand pulled until someone made the journey back to the container to collect the missing equipment (whoops - still learning - there is a lot to remember you know!)....

A few people were dispatched to clear the small amount of reed left on Area G (again all by hand)..

Soon, however, normal service was resumed...

..including people falling in a heap on the piles of reed in the attempts stack the vegetation ...

It takes a lot of effort to build these heaps especially when the sheet has gone and you are desperately trying to stop it all rolling back down again..

We were progressing very well by tea break, so on the restart, a few of us took to cutting back more scrub in preparation for later weeks’ winch sites..

All in all it was an excellent mornings work...Grizzly got a little excited by its run out today and opted to throw itself partially off the boardwalk by the container leaving its ‘handler’ hanging on tight to prevent both wheels going down....it was all hands on deck really so no photos I am afraid..but a team effort meant it was recovered and safely put away before it could wreak more havoc!!