Folly Hall, Thornthwaite: 19-03-2019

Taking out or putting in??

After a few weeks of scrub and hedge removal it made a change, this week, to get back to the task of inserting trees rather than cutting them down. The NCVs, alongside an 'Open Country' group, were attending the first of three tree planting days at Folly Hall, Thornthwaite. Here no fewer than 1000 trees are to be planted during March.

So - how did everyone get on? Well - let's have a look shall we?

There was no problem finding the venue - 
sign posts led us all the way from the main road.

Here's the top part of the field to be planted up - the so called 'drier area'.
Well - you only have to look at the rush cover to know that 'drier' is being optimistic.

Yes - thought so. Far from dry.

Another challenge was the underlying bedrock. 
No chance of planting a tree here!

The workers soon began to arrive....

...and so did the necessary kit.

Pretty soon there were bags of tubes, bundles of tree stakes 
and bags of trees all over the place.

 Shortly after the air rang with the sound of lump hammers hitting stakes, hitting rock.

Occasionally you would hit a damp patch 
with a good layer of wet mud overlying the rock.

The breaktime picnic place resembled a mini Brimham Rocks
 and will forever remain an open glade within the surrounding forest.

After coffee time the group moved down the site to continue inserting stakes.
More rocky areas awaited them.

Now that area to left of the stream looks promising.

Yes - thought so. Lots of posts could be hammered in here.

Bonus point for Phil for collecting up the stake bundle ties. 
We don't want to leave them lying around do we?

This chap from the Open Country group was the first to plant a tree. 
You can just see it in front of the post.

By lunchtime all the stakes were knocked in and it was time to start some serious tree planting. The NCVs worked at the bottom of the site and Open Country at the top.

"Yankee Doodle went to town riding on a tree tube".
Come on Alistair - keep that bucking bronco under control.

Towards the end of the afternoon spirits were lifted by
the arrival of some delicious cake made by Alison. Thanks for that!

In no time flat the NCVs were swarming around like wasps around a honey pot.

Then all that remained was the long walk back up hill and down to the hall.
Lots of trees planted but lots more still to do on Saturday (and possibly next Tuesday too).

Other news:

An elite group of just 2 volunteers passed up the pleasure of planting trees and, instead, worked up at Gouthwaite Reservoir removing the alders along the water's edge that were threatening to block out the view from the viewing platform. Let's see how they got on shall we?

 The nature of the problem.

The answer to the problem. Beautifully coppiced with a 

chainsaw by Nidderdale  Birdwatcher chainsaw expert, Dean.

 Some of the resulting debris from the activity 

which now needs to be removed from the site.

And finally - an apology...

There will be no blog next week as the editor will be away and unable to access the internet. The NCVs may well be back planting trees at Thornthwaite so a photo of how it looked at the end of the day will be posted the following week. At least readers now know roughly what will be happening!!

Wood Hill Farm:12-03-2019

This week is, apparently, National Butchers' week in the UK. This is why the NCVs set to, with a variety of tools, to do a bit of butchery of their own. However, you need not be alarmed. No animals were hurt in the making of this blog. No - not at all. Instead they continued cutting out the remains of the very old hedge at Wood Hill Farm, a job started four weeks ago. 

Regular readers will know that the NCVs made a huge impact on their first visit and, since then, farmer Miles has been removing the stumps. However - there was lots more of the hedge to do, as you can see......

The body of the hedge lay quietly awaiting the inevitable.

Ros K. made the first incision with her butcher's loppers..

Soon the whole group was busy carving.

Andrew removed this particularly juicy leg of hedge 

and took it off for processing.

Very soon there were slices of hedge offal (or Hoffal) all over the place.

The incinerator was goaded into action - not easy in the rain.

However, Julia and Dave managed a blaze with just half a damp match 

and one stick of kindling.

At coffee time Julia was very pleased with herself, 

having bagged one of the very few decent places to sit out of the mud.

Master butcher Liz deployed the chainsaw to carve up the larger joints of hedge.

This particular side of hedge needed three NCVs to shift it.

The arrival of a box of delicious brownies 

during the afternoon lifted spirits.

As the day wore on the grass wore out.

The area around the fire resembled the Somme.

Walking across the mud required much effort.

It was clear that this NCV was going 

to have to do a bit of washing.

In fact it was hard to judge who was going to have to do the most!!

Back at the cars a valiant attempt was made to clean up....

 ...but even the power spray was struggling to remove the clag.

Also today.......

Three Kestrel boxes and three Bat boxes were delivered to Roy, the game keeper at the Summerstones Estate near Scarhouse Reservoir. They joined the three owl boxes delivered there a little while ago - all thanks to the hard work and the woodworking skills of Jan of the NCVs. It’s great to be able to report this sort of cooperation which can benefit the wildlife of Upper Nidderdale.

Owl box in situ.

An unusual site at Scarhouse Reservoir Dam taken by Jan after he had delivered the boxes.

It's clear that the reservoir has now filled up after last year's dry spell!!

Ellington Banks: 05-03-2019

Pancakes? No chance!

It may have been Pancake Tuesday today but there were no frying pans being used at Ellington Banks today - only loppers and bow saws. The window of opportunity for removing encroaching scrub  is fast closing, so the NCVs needed to get a wiggle on and have a final go at the unwanted alder, willow and hazel saplings threatening to engulf the magnesian limestone grassland.

The task was a bit daunting on arrival.

But needless to say everyone just got stuck in.

 Brash piles started on our last visit got added to....

...and any nice straight poles were set to one side for transporting to 
Summerbridge nature reserve for our next training day.

Nice bit of 'threading' there Paul.

The cleaned up poles were carried off to Liz's trailer.

Dave used one of the poles to fight off a winged dragon 
that appeared out of the clouds.....

...and Andrew braved the depths of the crocodile infested swamp
to ensure that not a single sapling was left standing.

Brash was being generated by the ton 
and something more drastic had to be done.

Osian stepped up to the plate and laid the foundations for a fire.

With willing brash carriers like Andy to assist....

...he soon had a roaring blaze going.
The brash started to disappear very quickly after that.

Everyone congregated on the natural roadside bench for breaks.

By coffee time it was clear that we probably 
had just about all the poles we needed.

At lunchtime this was noticed on a post. 
Can you guess what it is?
(Answer at the bottom of the blog.)

Lunch over, Liz got busy with her chain saw 
on a couple of unwanted birch trees.

In a bid to ensure that the fire would start to die down before everyone left for home, 
John Black (the MOD ecologist) showed a small group of NCVs how 
to create a 'windrow' (a dead hedge to the uninitiated).

Within no time at all the group were on the case....

 ...and a few carefully placed twigs grew into a mighty hedge.

 Paul knocked in some stakes to steady the structure...

...and then - there it was. Complete.(apart from a little bit of tidying up.)
This will serve as a barrier and as a habitat pile at the same time. 
Much quicker to construct than a brash pile too.
John awarded the group a 10/10 - not bad for a first attempt!

 By 2:40pm, when the group knocked off, the site was
 looking a good deal clearer than when we first arrived.

And the fire was well on the way to being safe to leave.

Well done Tom - clearing your boots of anything untoward!

So - what was that stuff on the post???

It was the remains of frogspawn (seen here in one of the many small ponds in the area) 

that had been eaten by a magpie who,according to Liz,  

only liked to eat the whites - not the yolks!!

Apparently they regurgitate the indigestible tadpoles and leave them on posts.

Poor old taddies!