Tuesday 30 October 2018

Footpaths and tools: 30-10-2018

A close to home day for the NCVs.

This week's blog has been written by NCV Osian.

The NCVs stayed in Pately Bridge this week. Resident expert tool sharpeners and equipment maintainers, Jan and Phil were joined by a willing apprentice in the form of Will. So, there would be three working hard around the wood burner in the barn while the remaining volunteers chomped at the bit to get out into the cold wet weather to carry out a mish mash of tasks around Pateley Bridge’s footpaths.

Jan the man reigned supreme....

...over minion Will.

But then a man who can design and knock up a
 bespoke rack for hand axes deserves to be Kin Pin.

First up was a small quick task to clear some gorse from a footpath high above Pateley Bridge near the old quarries. Graham had the gauntlet thrown at him, literally, to start a fire suitable to burn wet gorse. He fulfilled this task admirably and threw in an extra feature; enough smoke to almost overcome the remaining volunteers cutting gorse 30 yards away. During the gorse removal a long lost set of stone steps were uncovered.


By NCV standards a minuscule affair.


The hidden steps start to make an appearance.

The NCVs soon had everything under control.

After a tea break augmented with Audrey’s flapjack (Thank you Audrey!), the team moved on to overgrowth clearance and path maintenance on the footpath above Quarry lane.

Tom was glad to escape the passive smoking 
environment he had experienced lower down.

 Lunchtime was spent enjoying the views, courtesy of improved weather,
 of Nidderdale and confirming it is the Knaresborough castle 
Ravens with the Yorkshire accent

 After lunch, the roving footpath team got back into the cars to squeeze through the narrow gap between stone walls and precipitous drop to find and repair a step on a semi-mythical footpath somewhere on the top Wath road. 

Question, how many NCVs does it take to replace one footpath step? See photo below for answer.



Just mind that lump hammer Graham - 
Osian needs those fingers for tomorrow.

The team were very proud of what they achieved with the limited materials available.

With the step repaired, the roving NCVs headed for base to check on the tool maintainers who had done an excellent job, as always, of cleaning / sharpening / lubricating assorted tools. Will even manged a spot of cleaning and drain clearance.

Tuesday 23 October 2018

Hackfall Wood: 23-10-2018


This Tuesday was the last one before the clocks go back and the UK starts its season of long dark evenings. In Hackfall there were the usual autumnal tasks to do - clearing culverts of fallen leaves, clearing vista lines of encroaching saplings, removing debris from the cascades and oiling the benches. There was also an unexpected job awaiting them in the car park.....

Once again a car had taken out the end of the gateway,
A job for a couple of walling experts - good job Anita and Sally were there!.

Have a coffee break ladies, before completing the job. 

And what a beautifully done job it was.

Team Osian and Ken made an excellent start clearing the cascades of debris.

There we are - nice and clean 
(until the next autumn storm brings down twigs and leaves).
It's a bit like painting the Forth Bridge.

 Ruth and David had plenty of work to do sanding and oiling all the benches. 

That is - until the oil ran out 3 benches into the job.
Never mind - there's always next month's visit.

 The vista line from the Ruin to Fisher's Hall definitely needed a hair cut!


Likewise the view from Mowbray Castle.
Why can't vista line plants just stay close to the ground?!

Mark and Ros E. got to work with the loppers up at the castle....

...reducing tall stems to stump level....

...thereby allowing the view to be visible once more.

The vista at Fisher's Hall was much more of a challenge.
The team of two were relieved when a few of the others came to help them out after lunch.

Apart from the masses of brambles that you 
had to wade through there was an ocean of horse tails to cope with.

Now - is this horse tail or an NCV having a bad hair day?

Apologies - there are no pictures of the two teams of culvert clearers at work. We'll make sure there are some next time.

There is this photo of one of the culvert teams having their lunch. It was the last work day that John and Kath will be out with the NCVs until next spring when the caravan site opens again. Enjoy your winter back at home guys!!


Back at the car park we all made sure our boots and tools were clean as, unfortunately, there is ash die back in the wood and we don't want to transport it anywhere else!!

Other NCV news


At least two of the NCVs put in some practice on their veteran tree identification skills after their training session last week. They discovered a few worthy candidates for the Woodland Trust inventory at Mayfield Farm - although, as you can see from the pictures below, this was not always an easy task!!

 Tony did some graceful limbo dancing to reach 
around the back of this likely veteran.....

... and Ros E. went riding astride a high level tree root
in order to get the measuring tape into the correct position.

Tuesday 16 October 2018

Ancient and veteran tree training: 12-10-2018

Another tree related week - 

but far easier on the legs!!

A day of training was the name of the game for the NCVs this week - and some unusual training too. We were being expertly versed in the art of identifying ancient and veteran trees by trainer Alan Hunton, who volunteers with the Woodland Trust.

After some time in the council chambers in Pateley Bridge everyone then moved on to the new Summerbridge nature reserve to put our new skills to the test. We were looking for appropriate trees to add to the ATI (that's the Ancient Tree Inventory if you haven't already guessed.)


Alan explained why some of the trees we pointed out as possible candidates were not worth recording. He was very picky!! This could be due to the fact that for every tree recorded in the Woodland Trust online register a handful of 'verifiers' like him need then to visit the tree to check it actually is worthy of recording.


 We did manage to find some that he felt were appropriate to be named ''veteran' or 'ancient', like this coppiced holly.


 This downy birch was also given the Alan Hunton seal of approval.
It was more of a spiral of hollowness.


This specimen was an obvious candidate as it exceeded the 3.5m limit on girth.
We're talking about the beech tree here and not the NCV behind it!!

Everyone was on the lookout armed with the tools of the trade, 
namely a tape measure, a GPS and....


.... a clipboard holding the all important recording forms.


In spite of the burr sticking out the side of this tree, apparently it was not worth recording.
Andy gave it a conciliatory pat on the nose in case its feelings were hurt.


Tree girth had to be measured at a height of 1.5m unless it was like this one with more than one stem. That's when you had to get lower down and risk spoiling your hair do.
Perhaps this is why Alan came in a hat?


Folks were inclined to respectfully bow their heads at this ancient 
remaining bit that was still in leaf.

Lunch was eaten on the site of the 
demolished pheasant pen in West Wood. 

It seemed like only yesterday we were taking it to pieces -
 the last two weeks have passed in a flash!

More goodies were provided by Helen Neaves - one of the wood's owners.
This time some yummy apple flapjack. (Thanks Helen!!)

By 2:30pm we had visited all three woodland areas and each team of NCVs had recorded 3 or 4 trees that had passed the 'Alan Hunton test'. Each of these records will now be entered into the Woodland Trust's ancient tree online inventory. Anyone can see this for themselves via the following website:

The training materials used this week can be accessed from HERE.

Thanks go to Alan for an excellent training session (and for curbing our enthusiasm which had us ready to record anything that was bigger than a sapling!!) 

Other recent NCV endeavours.....

Jan, the handyman, spent time recently making a wooden box (on the fourth shelf up in the picture below) and rack to store all the pieces of our 6 scythes.

Cutting edge design 
(Copyright joke from Tony)


On Wednesday and Thursday of last week Jan, Tony and Ian made no fewer than 40 nest boxes - 27 of which have been passed on to the Neaves at the new Summerbridge nature reserve. These are to be erected in the middle of November.

Well done chaps - the bird population will be very happy!!



Tuesday 9 October 2018

Scar House Reservoir: 09-10-2018

Can't stop - trees to check!

This week the NCVs were up at Scar House Reservoir to carry out a tree check in 5 plots , planted by the UNLP project as part of the scheme to plant 7,000 trees. They needed to make sure that:
  1. tree tubes were secure for the coming winter
  2. any young trees that looked dead after this summer's drought were marked for checking again in the spring, in case they needed replacing.

The weekly task alert email said that "This venue will involve some climbs in places for those feeling energetic." As you can see from the map below this was not an understatement. 

A bird's eye view of this week's task area.

The five patches of woodland (shown in green) were all far distances apart too - and yet the email went on to say that  "If we finish these there are another 4 further down the dale to check." 

Hmmm. OK. Let's see how we get on with the first five plots shall we?

The troops gather at Angram dam..


The top of the first plantation.
Easy! All the tubes well exposed.
Problem was.....


... the ground was a bit on the steep side....


 
...with a long way to go down to the bottom!


The shelter gave some respite from the wind at coffee time.


Once at the bottom of the hill it was across 
and up the other side to the second plot....


 
...up being the operative word.


At least the tubes were easy to see again.

The pre-lunch patch (marked 3 on the map) consisted of ups and downs.
The NCVs pressed on.


At lunchtime it was clear that the undergrowth was starting to become an issue.


Andy brought some wonderful cake which he had baked himself.
He declined to say which birthday he is about to celebrate..
Thanks Andy!!

The final challenge was to find plot 5 and then 
wade through the waist high bracken to reach it.
Thank goodness for the energy provided by the cake!

The tubes were NOT so easy to see now.
Everyone was starting to really feel the strain.

Osian commented: "A beautiful day,in spite of the wind, but to say the terrain was steep in places was an understatement of epic proportions."

It was clear that the final plot, up Dead Man's Hill, (marked 4 on the map) was going to have to wait for another day. And as for those other four areas further down the valley - NO CHANCE!!!!