'dynamic' - By fosh_admin on Monday, March 7, 2011 - 22:03

Sharphill Wood Work Party

6^th March 2011

At the invitation of BTCV, we did an extra work party today, and the hedging work along the west side of the Wood progressed a lot further.  There were 6 volunteers from BTCV. Led by Ian Ward who has supervised all the work on the hedging.  The weather was brilliant! A lovely change from getting wet and cold on the work parties.

Several of the Friends Group turned up, seven in total plus two children and 2 black Labradors.  We helped BTCV to coppice some mature large hawthorns, lay some of the thinner stemmed ones, (see separate section on hedge-laying) and then cut the brash into manageable pieces and laid it back into the hedgerow as dead hedging.  In two to three years the dead hedging will die away, and the regeneration of the hawthorn should be coming along nicely, and meanwhile we have created a thorny barrier to protect the Wood boundaries. This should encourage people to use the entrances that are Rights of Way, and not create a network of informal paths that encroach on the sections where we want to encourage wildlife and understorey.

We also felled several medium sized sycamores, to create light and space for the other species to regenerate, especially the under storey which provides shelter and habitat for small creatures and birds.  Another job was to lay more woodchip on the very muddy bits of the path, a very exhausting job and never ending!   

One walker had reported a dangerous large branch dangling over the path – the expertise of Ian and others put paid to that in no time.  It was hollow and rotten, and actually had several woodpecker holes in it!

However there is another large branch wedged across two trees that will have to wait until another day!

BTCV have done some excellent work for Sharphill Wood, much of it unpaid, and we thank them profoundly. They have shared their expertise, their tools and their biscuits unstintingly.  Have a look at their website on the link below, as there is always some sort of interesting work going on, if you want a different venue than Sharphill.

http://www2.btcv.org.uk/display/volunteer

PIC HERE OF THE WORK PARTY TEA BREAK

 article by Chrissie Wells