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!!