Soldiering on with fewer bosses

The good people working for whatever previous incarnation of Natural England it was that set out the management regime for our SSSI when they set it up clearly did not use too much of their imaginations on naming the various sections they broke it up into. The direct result is that today 15 of us convened at the one so thrillingly called Area A; presumably the first one they came to walking up Warren Road.

Area A and indeed the equally imaginatively named Area B are the grassy bits between Warren Road and Fox’s Beck, and are important for the wide range of plant species found there. They are noticeably drier than the sections on the other side of the Beck, although the closer you get to that watercourse the softer the ground gets. They are cut on alternate years, so with B getting the treatment last year, A was in the frame this time round. Two years of un-fettered growth makes for quite a tangle, so as usual a cut was done mid-week so that there would be something for us to work on from the moment we arrived. Here’s what we found.

Team Leaders Margaret and Julie had coordinated time away so that we were left in Kevin’s capable hands. (We suspect the missing bosses had gone off to a luxury spa break.) As always, bosses aside, the most essential people are those who take on the catering, which is why Sheila looks so cheerful.

Your correspondent gamely volunteered to pull the cart bearing the bulk of the day’s tools. The boardwalk is surprisingly uphill for much of its length, or so it seemed.

Not only had the ‘pre-cut crew’ done of spot of mowing earlier, but another visit yesterday to sort out the best location for winching and dumping had soaked up another two and a half hours for a couple of people. At first glance the situation appeared hopeless, but pluck and determination saw them through and an excellent dump site was the result. Winch Captain today was the irrepressible Noel, whose singing as we turn loaded sheets over is always so nostalgic – today it was an Ian Dury medley.

We were impressed by his braces, which can be used as tape measures if the need arises – but with the risk of his trousers descending in an unseemly manner.

Whilst discussing fashion, we must not overlook Carolyn’s confusing shirt: did she wear an NWT one when volunteering in the Galapagos?

Splendid though the dump site already was, the routes through to it from the wide spread of the site made further scrub removal necessary. Step forward the two Andrews, armed with loppers, saws and slashers. They set to with characteristic enthusiasm, and the scrub retreated accordingly. 

There are times when a bit of upper body strength comes in handy for this volunteering lark. Although some would think it’s not necessary in this case, here we see your correspondent being given a workout in a novice’s bodybuilding course. Instructor John had just finished screaming in my face, “Be more Andrew!”

We’ve observed before that these occasions are catalysts for erudite conversations. Today they included the therapeutic benefits of nettles in the treatment of arthritis (not for me, on sober reflection), and the many and varied technicalities involved in saw blades for different purposes.

Such was the fervour with which folk had been working …

…that shortly before the half-time break a traffic jam had built up.

The refreshment break began, and the throng assembled.

And of course, as is his usual practice, Noel took his ease on a handy heap.

Suitably refreshed, the fun continued for a while more, but under Team Leader Kevin’s firm leadership we finished on time, although the mystery of John’s missing gloves remains. The previous session had of course been on the central area (G), but since then more hand cutting of reeds has been carried out in the flower-rich part spared the mower. It’s gratifying to see how many Grass of Parnassus flowers are out, including in the mown parts.

There’s still plenty left to do here, but at the end of the session we could take satisfaction from the amount we’d done.

Here is Team Leader Kevin’s message of thanks:

Dear all

On an overcast morning that turned into a humid one, 15 souls turned out to area A where a tangle of reeds, grasses, bindweed and I’m sure many other species of weeds awaited them. The precut had been carried out by John and Andrew and they had found it tough going. Our new machine “Grillo” had struggled with all the vegetation growth and they had not cut as much as they would normally do. Nevertheless, the volunteers raked and pitchforked the arisings and carried out some tree popping. With both Andrews sawing and lopping, we were soon able to open up a large winching site. This will, hopefully, serve us well in the future.

Thank you to all for today and we look forward to seeing you in two weeks’ time.

Kevin on behalf of the team leaders.

Warm work!

I recently discovered the corpse of a small dragonfly on one of our “quiet” lanes. Although it looks as though it was on the moon, it was in fact here in Southrepps.

Guided by the Pocket Guide UK Dragonflies app on my phone, which in turn led me to the excellent British Dragonfly Society website. I found my specimen matched the image of an “over-mature female Common Darter”. At this point my lawyers (Messrs Sloeli, Sloeli and Kostli) have advised me to stop right there, so let’s move on by describing our latest working party on the Common.

Unforeseen circumstances led to me arriving fashionably late – but not so late as to miss the refreshments break. Despite it being early September, we were in fact on the brink of what the Meteorological authorities predicted to be the warmest period of the year, so the sight that met my eyes on arrival (to the expected barrage of abuse) was of an apparent picnic in the woods, taking advantage of the welcome shade.

The fact was of course that there had been a hive of activity for an hour already, clearing away the material cut earlier in the week by the ‘pre-cut’ team, as well as newly felled material.

As Team Leader Margaret was involved a tumble seemed inevitable, but it went perfectly!

This video clip is an attempt to give a flavour of the work going on, with a winched sheet being guided, while more sheets are being loaded, and Grillo is operated by Andrew on mowing duty debut.

As well as clearing the open fen, a lot of the encroaching scrub was given a firm rebuke. Andrew is a man who relishes the more physical tasks. He looked so happy when he was given a saw and some loppers - here seen disappearing into the scrub to start!

That scrubby area was penetrated to a greater depth than of late, to create a decent amount of room to dump the cut vegetation. Imagine the surprise when a wildlife observation hide was discovered – something of a mystery of how long it’s been there, and what its owner had (or has) under observation.

                  

That clearing was the workplace of the crack winching team, who rarely emerge from the shadows, so let’s shine a little light on them now.

Their view of the outside world and approaching loaded sheets…

The scrub removal created a lot of material to be moved…

… and doing so caused a bit of a bottleneck at times. Anyone who has marvelled at wildlife films showing columns of leafcutter ants carting off their booty to their nest could, with some fevered imagination, bring those to mind at such times.

The grateful recipient of all that stuff was Team Leader Julie, the renowned builder of dead hedges. This was the area she selected…

.. here’s the work in progress…

.. and here’s the impressive final result

And so back to the refreshments break.

You’ve seen beer snakes created by the livelier spectators at major cricket matches from more or less empty plastic glasses – here’s Margaret’s slightly more restrained tribute to that fine old folk tradition.

When all the work appears to have been done, and all anyone wants to do is stop, more or less the last task, and an essential one at that, is to neatly fold up the four large plastic drag sheets. It’s specialised work done properly, and the acknowledged expert is Sheila. In fact she was immortalised by Abba with their hit song Folding Queen.

At the end of it all, the southern section of the poetically named Area G was quite transformed.

Here is Team Leader Julie’s message of thanks for today’s work.

Dear all

I hope that you are all enjoying the lovely weather (at last!).

A huge thankyou to the eighteen volunteers who turned out today to complete the fen clearance on the central area.  It was a little warm out in the open, but everyone got on and the area looks superb!  We had volunteers raking, pitchforking, dragging, sawing, lopping and dead hedging - something for everyone today! 

A big thankyou to the Grillo drivers (well done Andrew R on your debut!) who cut the reed for us in the week and also to the winch operators - who so often get missed off the thank you emails -we couldn't do it without you! 

We will be back in two weeks’ time over on the Warren Road end tackling the fen on that side.

Take care

Regards, Julie for the Team Leaders

Just across the boardwalk from today’s site we find the larger northern section. It’s a very special patch of fen, rich in wild flowers. Unfortunately, the flowering time for Grass of Parnassus and Devil’s-bit scabious clashes with the mowing schedule laid down by Natural England, designed to protect the entire rare ecosystem there. Even though many plants dodge the mower, and as can be seen right now manage to flower soon after, a significant chunk is spared the reaper, with laborious hand-pulling of the encroaching reeds carried out by dedicated volunteers; in this case Team Leaders Julie and Margaret, who have put in two back-breaking hours each since the previous working party.

Here’s what Julie tells us:

The middle of the area is definitely not as full of reed as it used to be (so it is worth doing!) but there is still plenty when you get in there - especially little ones!

But you could see where we had been in this area with a good chunk cleared.

Unfortunately, around the edges there is a lot more!

I nearly lost Margaret!

It’s a sea of purple and there is a lot of Grass on Parnassus waiting to emerge!

This is why we do it!

 

 

Back again so soon?

 

A mere seven days since the last session, 18 hardy volunteers returned to the Common this morning, at 9.00 am no less, in part to avoid the worst of the anticipated heat, but also to enable the viewing figures for the women’s World Cup Final to be boosted even more. The Met Office had not been wrong in their predictions (about the weather that is – I don’t know what they had thought the footy result would be), so on that basis alone the early start was well merited.

Those of us who like to turn up at these events at the appointed hour often find that others have arrived on site considerably earlier. My first intimation of this today was the sight of Noel’s splendid bicycle, before I found any actual people.

Then I spotted Team Leader Julie, single-handedly raking up the material from the “pre-cut” done a few days earlier (so that those of use who come later, or on time as we like to call it, have something to be getting on with).

Next to hove into view was Grillo the mower, operated by John, wearing a camouflaged hat, which is why I hadn’t seen him sooner – lucky not to be mown down!

As more people arrived, heaps of vegetation began to build. Being so light and hay-like, it was relatively easy to work with, which was a relief in view of the growing warmth. Speaking of hay, it did rather put your usual correspondent in mind of ahem, a Haywain…

By pitchfork or by hand, those heaps kept growing…

… and growing 

At the start of each session we count the tools out, and at the end we count them back in – at which point today we couldn’t account for one of the rakes. An extensive search was made, and here is a distant shot of Team Leader Kevin proudly brandishing the missing implement…

It had clearly moved from where it had last been left; a striking example of the rake’s progress (boom boom!)

Not only did the heaps on the drag sheets grow, but so too of course did the heap at the dumping site – where wise folk work; it’s cooler there.

Team Leader Julie is renowned as a builder of ‘dead hedges’, but her talents also extend to carefully crafted heaps, each strand of which she had moved there by hand. Not surprisingly, she looked pretty hot and tired by the time it had got this big.

Of course, the more efficient way is to drag a laden sheet to the dump site. “You pull that way, and I’ll go this way.”

Where it is tipped out. Turning it over can be hard going…

But there’s somehow still time for enjoyment (usually if someone gets half-buried).

It doesn’t always work smoothly of course

But despite the struggles, it can go tolerably well

By half-time we had completed clearing all that had been cut on the northern side of the boardwalk,

so it was time for refreshments.

Then it was off to the other side of the boardwalk, where Grillo had been busy cutting more material for our attention.

Eventually it was time to pack up, and for those who wanted to, rush back home to see how England’s Lionesses were doing. Sadly, they couldn’t quite get over the line, but as usual, Southrepps’ own Lionesses (and Lions) had been on top form again today.

Here is Team Leader Margaret’s message of thanks.

Thank you to the 18 volunteers who joined us on a very hot and humid morning. Thank goodness we started early! You are all never failing in your enthusiasm and work ethic. The whole area is looking good. I didn't realise just how hot and tired I was until I collapsed in front of the football. Well done Lionesses; just to make the final is a wonderful achievement.

Hopefully we will see you all again in two weeks to carry on where we left off. Have a restful afternoon.

Margaret for the team leaders.