Culverts and coppicing at Hackfall Woods: 28-01-2014

Finally, the rain caught up with us! 

After several Tuesdays of pretty good weather, the waterproofs were definitely required today.

The brave (foolish?) NCVs gather ready for the off (and the wet).

Seven of us made our way down to Fountain Pond, stopping en route for some culvert clearing, to remove the young willow trees growing on the far side of the pond (which was a beautiful blue colour).  Paul spotted a kingfisher perching on one of the overhanging saplings so we made sure not to remove that one.  

Can you spot Ron and Mike taking their lives in their hands 

coppicing at the top of the vista line?

Meanwhile down below Jan decides to coppice on the island.
Or is he just playing hide and seek with Will?

(Editor's note: It's amazing what conservation volunteers are willing to do to improve the environment.)

Willow was cut and stacked by 
the less adventurous NCVs.

The route round the pond was almost welly high with mud but willow clearing was completed with a neat little brash pile to the side. 

 Spot the bijou brash pile on the far side of the pond.
It is there. Just behind the island.

We enjoyed a damp lunch 'inside' the Rustic Temple beside the pond discussing how useful for the volunteers it would be if these follies had roofs!

"Let's imagine we are in the dry.Where's Jan?"

"Probably still on the island."

Ready, steady, go..... Reluctant to get on with the next job the NCVs 

considered having a mud race around the tree island.

Onwards, along to the Grotto and Fisher's Hall to the rocky overhangs to clear more culverts and also attempt to dig some ditches beside the muddier patches of path to take some of the water coming down the slope.  The ditch making was becoming somewhat futile - as soon as dug out, the ditches filled in with mud again!

I think you've missed a bit there Ros.

Mud loving NCVs happy in their work.

It wouldn't do to go home clean.

By now the rain had almost stopped but we decided to head back up with some litter collecting on the way and enjoy the waterfalls and torrents of water in the river below.  

Water, water everywhere......

Our efforts of the day were rewarded with good views of the kingfisher, flitting from perch to perch beside the pond.  

 Spot the kingfisher.

There he is - what a clear picture. 

That day's photography training really paid off!

Not to be outdone, a dipper perched proudly for us right on top of the island (fountain not on!).

The dipper posed for a lengthy photo shoot.

Laura

Tree planting at Monk Ings and Pyefield farms: 21-01-2014

In the valleys the day dawned but you would hardly know it because of the fog.Those on the hill tops enjoyed a lovely sun rise. So where would we be planting trees today? Well we were to start at Monk Ing Farm, which is on the hills above Dacre and was bathed in sunshine when we arrived.

Being volunteers some of us arrived in good time. Whilst we were standing waiting by the ice covered ponds for Paul to arrive our fingers and toes were becoming cold, so we engaged in Tai Chi/Yoga warm up exercises. Those who had not done them before were favourably surprised by how effective they were.

The two newly dug ponds at Monk Ings 

were suffering with frost bite.

As were we - hence the initial calisthenics shown below......

Dave B. takes the lead and starts us off 

with a simple arm swinging exercise.

Graham prefers the 'What's that over there?' routine.

(Very good for the upper arms.)

Ros E ends up looking more like a goose taking off... 

... and Ros K. demonstrates the 'Walking Nowhere' step.

(Very good for the upper legs.) 

When Paul arrived we were ready to unburden his van of trees, tree guards, stakes, spades and hammers. We had willow, downy birch, oak and alder to plant here. One hundred trees in all, provided by the Friends of the AONB and funded by the Harrogate Rotary Club. While Paul was telling us where to plant, Hannah divided the trees into bags to keep their roots moist until the pairs of volunteers were ready to plant them.

The 13 volunteers, including a new member, David, from Timble, plus Howard who has been a tree warden for some time, worked so fast that we were finished by lunch time. 

NCVs were scattered all over the site, busy as busy bees can be.

Everyone worked in pairs.

 Quick - take a photo - Dean's using a spade!

The farmer had kindly piled some enormous rocks near to the site so we sat in the sun on the rocks and had lunch before assembling for the compulsory group photo shoot.

 Laura sits on top of the rock pile trying to 

keep warm in her arctic quality hat.

 Now - when I count to three say 'Trees'. 

(Dean was given the foreman's clipboard seeing he was wearing a high vis jacket.)

That left 24 trees to be planted at Pyefield farm, 8 by the pond we had recently created and 16 in a corner near Darley Beck. There were willow, downy birch, oak, alder and a few holly trees. As the day was so pleasant, all 13 volunteers joined the convoy to Pyefield House Farm and went to admire our handy work; the pond. 

Will fails to keep his bundle of tree stakes under control.

8 trees planted at the left hand end - 

the middle grassy area was left empty 

so that the pond would not get too over-shadowed for dragonflies.

Work starts all over again at Darley Beck.

And there you are - 

19 trees all planted in no time flat.

With fewer than 2 trees each to plant, we were finished by 1.30pm and so, with time off for good behaviour, we all headed for home with beaming smiles on our sun tanned faces.

Dave B.

Hackfall Woods: 14-01-14

At 10am sharp eleven NCVs joined Paul in the Hackfall Woods car park to be assigned tools and duties for the day. Unfortunately the winter storms had taken their toll on the wood so there was a good deal of hard work to be done.

Three NCVs joined Paul and set to work clearing a number of trees that had been blown down and blocked footpaths. One particular tree was a really sad sight. It was the very large silver birch near the entrance to the wood that is listed on the ancient tree data base. Its top had been completely snapped off by the high winds. As can be seen in the photos below the ladies team were faced with a real challenge. 

How the mighty are fallen.

Thank goodness Laura has her magic yellow hat. 

It will make this clearance job so much easier.

Angela and Laura set to with bow saws; Anita wielded her loppers. With one mighty bound there it was, gone.

A lovely brash pile appears out of nowhere.

Well, almost. There is still just a little bit left....

The tree clearing tasks gave Paul some chain sawing practice. 

Paul makes the first incision of the day 

in another deceased silver birch.

Unfortunately one of the branches that he sawed off landed on his lunch box. It is no longer a lunch box; more a collection of plastic fragments.

Right - this one next. Easy peasy - only a skinny one.

Oops - that wasn't meant to happen.

Further down the hillside three other teams got to work along the various paths through the woods. Many of the culverts had filled up with soil and leaves, causing the water running off the hills to overflow onto the paths and turn them into quagmires. Our task was to remove the debris with spades and mattocks. Naively I had assumed that the pond digging task at Pyefield farm was our last bit of mudslinging for a while. How wrong I was. Once more we were ankle deep in oozy mud with thick clay pulling at our wellies and stubbornly sticking to the spades as we tried in vain to throw it to the side of the path.

Tony (the new) and Ron experience the effect 

blocked culverts have on the state of the footpaths.

Some of the paths were running with water and needed new ditches cutting to divert the flow. No problem - we could do this. Eventually.

Colin and Ros E. start to get that sinking feeling. 

It was going to be a long day.

OK Tony - so how, exactly, do you propose to dig 

out the ditch with that particular piece of hardware?

There you go - a ditch.

My team also had two under path pipes to unblock - they had filled with silt and rocks. Colin became the expert at cutting thin poles to insert into the pipes and ram the blockages through. It was very satisfying to see a swoosh of water suddenly emerge at the far end as the offending obstacle was swept out.

OK clever clogs - what now? 

This water is not disappearing.

Easy - let me just get my swooshing stick.

By 2:30pm all the culverts were cleared and, as we finished the task at the Alum Spring, some of us took the opportunity to clean the mud off all our outer clothing and tools in the cascade.  Of course there was still plenty of mud removal to be done once we got home. My washing machine was soon churning around full of filthy fleeces, trousers, hat and rucksack. A hot bath did the trick for the rest. Apart from my glasses. I even had to wash those too!

Ros E.

Coppicing in Bryan's Wood once more: 07-01-2014

Today the task was coppicing in Bryan’s Wood, a continuation of work that was started by some of us before Christmas. A band of 13 volunteers met eagerly in the car park, ready and raring to get going again after the long Christmas lay off. Well, we had to find some way of toning those 'abs' from flabs, and losing a few pounds, in sweat and toil, that Christmas invariably brings with it; coppicing seemed to be the ideal solution.

Happy to be reunited once more we set off through the mud and streams (careful crossing required) - wellies needed today! So were waterproofs, as the heavy showers forecast showed their hand the minute we stepped out of the cars. January was rearing its ugly head already (see Tony K's excellent poem at the end of this blog). Mindful of our fitness, or lack of it, Anita decided we only needed to carry one tool each into the wood, as we could only use one tool at a time. This economy proved to be a brilliant strategy. Unladen we soon trudged through the water and mud to arrive in good shape at the coppicing area. “Hi ho hi ho, it’s off to work we go…..” (Well it is still the pantomime season - “Oh yes it is!”)

Right Angela - that's one down. Just another 9999 to go.

Paul was still on holiday, also Tony K could not be with us today and he is our 'Bryan’s Wood Expert'. Leaderless we were just a tad worried initially that we might be attacking the wrong hazels. We eventually had our minds put at rest by a short phone call and the lopping, sawing and creating of habitat piles got under-way. 

Whilst Hannah checks the quality of Chris's brash pile 

Julia trains hazel sticks to jump over her arm.

And what beautiful habitat piles they were, lovingly created for the insects and small mammals that live in the area - quite palatial dwellings.

For sale - a new Wimpy development - three highly desirable invertebrate dwellings. Deceptively spacious, all mod cons, easy commute into Harrogate. 

Offers over £100,000 invited

The NCVs encircle the coppice and the hazel trees stand no chance whatsoever.

By 1:30 pm - after a lunch break where a few folk were still breaking into previously uneaten Christmas cakes - the lopping and sawing was complete. 

Right - that's the unwanted trees cut down. Now we just need to do a bit of clearing up.

The work now concentrated on clearing the cut wood to finish off the habitat palaces. By 2:30 pm the work was done. We gathered up the tools and looked with great satisfaction at what we had achieved. Another brilliant day of hard work, fun and team work was over.

What a difference a day makes - the job is done.

Ros (K)

Editor's note - Tony K has written the following poem to mark the end of the NCVs' year in December.....

2013:  A year in the life of the NCVs

In Nidderdale the volunteers have had a busy year

We started off in January full of zest and cheer

We coppiced Kirkby Malzeard and we foot-pathed by the Nidd

And in the winter’s mud and slush we slithered and we slid.

The weather wasn’t always kind, the spring brought lots of rain

But then the weather brightened and the sun came out again.

It didn’t really matter though, we NCVs are tough,

We  carried on regardless even when we’d had enough.

This year we’ve had some training in the art of laying hedges

And another course identifying flowers, grass and sedges.

Photography, and dragonflies, and GPS induction

Have increased our skills and knowledge through some excellent instruction.

The areas we’ve worked in have been local and remote.

We’ve willow-spiled the Laver among other things of note.

We’ve cleaned the barn and washed the spades and sorted all the tools,

We’ve helped the wallers walling and we’ve worked in different schools.

At boundaries we’re expert so at Clifton we’ve laid hedges.

At Sparrowhawk and Kettlesing we’ve tidied up field edges

Building slightly wonky fencing, this, despite advice from Jan

Who’s our principal perfectionist, a very hepful man.

For anything to do with trees or hedges we’ve got Dave

And Hannah who are experts, and they’ve taught us how to save

The trees at forty-five degrees that just won’t stand up straight

With all that wind near Old Spring Wood they’re really in a state.

Then Hannah cooked our lunches in the Village Hall at Clifton,

Which helped us in the afternoons to really get a shift on.

It’s strange, we’ve noticed in the past that when we’re offered lunch

That the turn out of the volunteers will draw a bigger bunch.

We’re always quite delighted when the season comes around

And it’s time for bashing bracken, pulling balsam, to the sound

Of cheerful working volunteers all singing songs of praise

As the blisters on their fingers burst, the happiest of days!

In December digging ponds became the highlight of the year.

The waders weren’t by Hugo Boss but were essential gear.

So all of us got filthy it was hell to get us clean

No, that’s not right, who didn’t need a hose down? That was Dean. 

We’ve coppiced hazel, thistle-pulled with gloves the thorns went through.

We’ve often worked at Hackfall where there’s always jobs to do.

To Paul we’ve been obedient, but to Ros we bow and scrape

When she tells us we must write the blog, from which there’s no escape.

We’ve eaten cake and flapjacks, and some sandwiches and chips.

We’ve told some dubious stories and exchanged some jokes and quips.

We’ve had a lot of laughs although the puns we’ve heard were fearful

And now it’s time to stop because I’m sure you’ve had an earful.

PS

2014

Wind and sleet and hail and rain;

Bloody January again!