Cow Myers, Galphay: 22-01-2019

When the NCVs received their task email this week they were under no illusions. 'Clearing scrub' definitely does not refer to a quick brush down with a stiff yard brush. No - it entailed the wearing of thick gloves, the use of loppers and saws and a lot of bending. And at Cow Myers (a SSSI site near Galphay) the last thing you would wear on your feet would be white pumps. Oh no - it is too muddy for that!

Here's how the scrub clearance went......

Although reasonably clear in the centre this flower rich meadow
 was in desperate need of a short back and sides.

All the scrub around the edges and the large 
stand of trees at the back needed to go. 

 Well- you have to start somewhere so...this patch first? 

 OK - why not.

My knees are going to pay for this tomorrow!

Dave demonstrates the brash collector's lunge.

Eventually the first blackthorn patch was no more 
and the NCVs were vying to cut the last bit.

At the other side of the meadow this team tackled a rather 
daunting wall of bramble and blackthorn.

Slowly but surely the daunting wall was nibbled away by NCV loppers until - 

- a breakthrough was achieved which allowed them
 to attack from the rear (a much easier prospect).

Brash heaps started to develop ready for burning next time. 
They occasionally had to be beaten into submission.
Blackthorn is impossible to turn into a proper habitat pile. Far too prickly and voluminous.

Ruth ably demonstrates the brash piler's fling.
(Note the spectre of doom has followed the NCVs here from Ellington Banks.)

Whilst all of this was going on two chain saw wielding workers 
laid waste to that stand of young trees mentioned earlier.
This was all very well until it came to clearing the aftermath.
Where to begin???

Well - trim all the twiggy ends off each tree and 

start making a proper habitat pile here....

...and the remaining trunks can be sawn up and made 
into a nice log pile here.

That's right Ros K. Keep ramming in the brash to make the pile nice 
and dense and stable. We don't want any flimsy habitat piles here.

Lovely log pile taking shape there Stan.

Well - quite a bit of the debris seems to have been processed.

Let's take a look on the cutting side of the stand.....

...Not too bad at all. A lot of the cut trees have been dealt with. 
We can do the rest next time (unless the chain saw workers start generating more!!)

The day wasn't nearly as cold as it had been forecast so layers had to be removed.
This led to polo shirt envy on the part of a couple of NCVs when they realised that Paul had a shirt with LONG sleeves. Jammy thing 
How did you swing that Paul?