My primary motivation for starting this blog is pure self interest. I recently started working, one day per week, as a volunteer for the countryside service. This is so different from the work I was, until last year, paid to do, that I wanted to record my thoughts as I go along. I started this on Facebook, but I thought this might be a better way of being able to write in detail about my experiences.
The countryside service manages the nature conservation areas around where I live, which include and old railway line that runs along the back of our house, an area that used to be a sewage works which was planted with trees about 15 years ago, a quarry that now has a caravan park in it, and other areas in the High Peak I have not yet visited. The service co-operates with other bodies involved in similar activities, like the National Trust and the Environment Agency.
The autumn is the time when the summer growth on the trees is pruned and plantations thinned. This happens, I am told, on a 7 year cycle. Initially trees are planted close together so that they give each other protection. As they get bigger, they are thinned, until ultimately in 100 years or so, you have tall, sturdy trees which support a mixed habitat for birds, insects and other small animals.
This week we were at the site of the former sewage farm. It is now an area of trees, with open spaces between and several footpaths running through it, a large, long strip of land bound by a river on one side, and the Manchester - Sheffield railway line on the other. The day's task was to thin out some of the trees near one of the footpaths. Today, there were two chainsaws in operation, a heavy duty strimmer to clear brambles and brush, and myself and one other member of staff who were to tidy up the felled tree branches and act as lookout for approaching people. My task was largely the latter, and I was thankful that it wasn't that cold, as it is a lot of standing about doing not a lot. I prefer to get stuck in!
But I got my chance in the afternoon, when I received instruction in hedge-laying. Most of the trees to be felled were down, we were just tidying up. One way is to feed everything into a chipper machine, which we used in previous weeks, but it was only on hire for three weeks and had to go back. So this time we created log piles, brush piles, and then made brush "fences". That's where the hedge-laying techniques come in. You fell some thin trees in a line, but leaving a slim bit of bark attached to the trunk. You make sure they are all pointing in the same direction. Then you cut the branches three quarters through to provide new growth points, and weave them into a tidy line, using stakes to hold it all together. Left over stuff is just stuffed in, but again, making sure it is all lined up in the right direction. New growth in the spring then binds it all together, making a lovely habitat for all the woodland creatures.
One thing I am very impressed with is the way that the rangers and wardens involve you and tell you what is going on. They have a strong ethos that volunteers should learn and understand why things are done in the way that they are done. Whether this is just a local thing, or is overall policy, I don't know. I am enjoying myself immensely.
good stuff!
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