Picking Gill Nature Reserve: 18-01-2022

 

This week is the 'Big Energy Saving Week' - a national campaign to help people cut their fuel bills. Well - what better way for NCVs to do that on a very chilly morning than to turn up for a hard day's work outside, wearing plenty of layers? No need to have the heating on at home. No lights required, no computers being used, no ironing or hoovering being done. And with the added bonus of doing other good things for the environment!! A win win situation.

The venue this week was the Picking Gill nature reserve near Eavestone and the task involved preparing a hedge for laying in a couple of weeks time. The reserve is well overdue for some TLC as can be seen from the state of the information panel and the pond below.

So - let's take a look at what was done ....

Care was needed on the icy puddles.

The hedge looked rather daunting...

...but NCVs are not easily daunted!

Paul was slowly absorbed by some hungry hawthorn but Tom 

remained blissfully unaware of his plight.

Whilst helping Andy, Graham took the opportunity

 to practise his ballroom dancing.

 
In no time at all there were two enormous 

piles of brash that needed dealing with.

Alistair and Graham wasted no time.

A fire was soon flickering and making inroads on the brash.

The hedge was being tackled from both sides.

Unfortunately brash from the road side had

 to be lifted over the kissing gate.

Not an easy task!

Another issue that had to be dealt with 

was the removal of  a wire fence.

But hey - what's  the removal of a wire fence to the NCVs?

Each hedge tree was protected by a plastic 

spiral which had to be removed and collected.

Thanks Will!

The plastic bags of ,often shattered, plastic started to mount up.

In the end there were 6 sacks in the back of Liz's vehicle - 

which meant that Graham had to be drafted in to help 

transport the two barrels of saws and loppers back to the barn.

Eagle eyed Andy spotted a couple of baby hawthorn trees 

so dug them up ready for infilling the gaps in the hedge.

Liz spent a while finding out how long is a piece of string.

Answer - 50m. Now Phil - how many hedge

 stakes and rails will she need to buy?

Once the hedge had been prepped 

it looked a lot less daunting.

And then it was on to a bit of halo

 coppicing of a large hazel tree.

This generated a third pile of brash to 

replace one that had just been burnt to ash.

The tree looked a lot better after the job and lifting its crown

will help to prevent the brambles scrambling up into the canopy.

Six little NCVs sitting on a wall....

Coffee and lunchtime was a treat in the sun.

A walk up the hill behind the work area allowed everyone to see 

just how big this lovely reserve is. (This is just one corner.)

For years we have been driving past it on the way 

to Ripon and never knew it was there!

At the top of the hill was what must be the

 UK's smallest war memorial. An unusual use for 

an unwanted gate post!!