A thousand trees!

This week signalled the change over from thinning & clearing to planting and 'less intrusive to wildlife' activities. So earlier in the week, with Martin, the completion of the fence clearing at Clump farm was the priority. Prior to this an apple tree at the Broadway end of Clump Farm needed cutting back. So having done this we moved back up the hill to complete the fence clearing. True to form the sheep moved in hoping for some food and once again we disappointed them. Have to say the weather was a great improvement on the previous week and we finished clearing early afternoon. This enabled Martin to tackle some much needed thinning of some sizeable ash trees which were impacting the boundary fence of a mixed plantation, close to where we were fence clearing.  Required some nifty chainsaw work but all in a days work for a skilled Ranger.

The Clump!

 Mike back from holiday this week so was pleased to hear we were to start planting ash trees in the East belt. Was quietly confident given I had some experience of planting the odd tree during my work in NT gardens. Began to suspect I had underestimated the scale of tree planting when we loaded up the trailer with stakes and tree protectors.  A quick count of the ash trees to be planted revealed 1000+!, I could hear a stereophonics song forming 'it takes 1 volunteer to plant a thousand trees ...?'. Fortunately Mike revealed we needed to 'heel'  most of them in a temporary trench in the Sherborne nursery area and start the multi phase planting  task with a 100 or so.  So armed with mini 'drivals', spades, stakes and protectors we set off for the East belt.  After a quick briefing from Mike on the approach { he's only planted ~50000 trees in his work for NT}, we began. Not ideal terrain with some thick tree roots and stony ground to combat but we completed the day with 80+ new ash trees planted. Ok Mike planted a few more than me! but I lack the practice.  Couple of interesting statistics came to light in this industrial scale  planting. The first is the funding,  where a Forestry Commission grant contributes towards the costs of the materials & trees  purchased. The second is that of the sapling trees planted only ~ 20% may reach maturity given environment conditions, animals and the need to thin out so only the best ash growth is selected.

Heeling- selection of young ash prior to soil covering

First batch of ash planted,  Mikes in there somewhere

The natives are getting restless!

I'm making another escape attempt as soon as it gets misty!

 Earlier in the week,  Matt the stockman for the Belted Galloways at Crickley, had phoned for Martin's assistance. One of his cows 'specialises' in breaking through weaknesses in fences and had spotted an opportunity in part of the stock fencing adjacent to the wooded area down from the 'fort'. So instead of completing the fence clearing work at Clump Farm Martin and I headed for Crickley Hill armed with the required fencing tools. The approach over two long stretches of stock fencing was to take out the top wire and replace with barbed wire to act as a greater deterrent to the rogue cow pushing at the old fencing posts /fencing. A new fence would eventually be required but for now this would suffice. Some basic clearing with loppers was the first step before some neat work with hammer, staples and the all important Myti Strainer braced against the straining post {not the 'monkey strainer' this time!} to get the required tension in the barbed wire strand. Unfortunately we ran out of barbed wire but a quick visit to Ebworth down the road remedied that and we completed the work before close of play.

As Mike was on leave, yep even Rangers can escape, Martin had the chance to use my spare day to catch up on the fence clearing at Clump farm.  Again the weather was misty but we ploughed on with the work with Martin cutting back the hawthorn, crab apple and eldar  as we advanced down the old boundary fence. At first glance, to my untrained eye, it looked like Martin with chainsaw was on a search and destroy mission. However there is method in the madness as a balance is struck between ensuring a clear ,stable fence line is made but healthy hawthorn,crab apple etc will grow back over time hopefully 'balanced' and not weakening the boundary fence.

Anyone seen the chain saw and fuel

Here's the chainsaw!

Found the fuel

For the first time this week the misty weather relented around lunchtime and the sun came out so we didn't feel so cut off from civilisation.  So after a hard mornings work we took a short break. At this point it became obvious we had quite an audience of the local sheep who obviously had heard about the need for more volunteers and were clearly keen to lend a hand. I did point out to Martin the H&S issues e.g. they weren't wearing steel capped chainsaw boots,  proper chain saw trousers or safety helmets. Anyway the sheep saw the sense in this and decided to take advantage of the new food source we had provided while we continued with the work.  Needless to say in spite of best endeavours we couldn't finish the work but we certainly left a large amount of brash for the ever growing bonfire the tenant farmer is building. Hopefully when lit it won't cause a panic throughout the land.

Gardening at the Lodge!

Lodge Park Sherborne

Another deadline, this time the season opening of Lodge Park next week , meant a slight change and somewhat surprising days work with Mike this week. Wasn't sure what was in store to start with but didn't expect to be wielding a hoe and rake this morning. First job was to weed the old gravel path in readiness for the delivery of fresh gravel. My jaw dropped when I witnessed the ten tons of gravel being delivered and the area Mike hoped to cover. Two positive things in my favour, similar gardening experience at Chastleton,  and the other, Mike's expert use of his tractor to help position the piles of gravel. Between us we made a decent start on the paths, see below, before all ten tons was used up. We finished the day clearing the woodland path using the leaf blower and bow saw plus loppers. Really must get the Park garden volunteers, who are more than capable of doing this,  organised to help do this in the future. 

Freshly gravelled  & weeded path

Meanwhile earlier in the week more 'ranger' like duties with Martin, fence clearing at Clump Farm. Didn't  manage to complete but other important liaison duties intervened. First Martin had to fit in a side trip to Snowshill manor to help direct the drystone wallers and the second was to gain agreement with the tenant farmer at Clump Farm to plant some  oak & ash trees on new ground. Hope to be involved in this planting which along with Mike's planned ash tree planting will balance the winter's more destructive but necessary thinning & clearing work.

Sprint to beat Spring deadline

I am reminded of the benefits of retirement as the end of the financial year approaches. No accruals for me, sorry for you unlucky NT staff coping with this. However the rush is on to get fence clearing and thinning tasks completed as much as possible before the bird nesting season starts mid March. So not surprisingly spent a hard days fence clearing with Martin but enjoyed my first visit to Clump Farm, which in spite of fog on the Broadway tower hilltop, provided good views down onto Broadway. Still some way to go on tree identification {I need to see the leaves!}, so failed in identifying field maple, crab apple and even sycamore. Got the hawthorn but mainly 'cos the thorns are a bit of a giveaway especially when they pierce my gloves! Martin remains reasonably patient and only sighed a few times...

Clump farm on a sunny day

Today with Mike started with a visit to the the drystone wallers working the wall adjacent to East belt. Interesting local father and son team who we helped out by clearing some of the sapling growth too near the wall and delivered some much needed supplies of cotswold stone. After this got stuck into the main days task of thinning which completed the work started last week which will allow Mike to erect a deer fence compartment. This will enable the new beech and ash  growth to develop unhindered by hungry deer. A side benefit of the thinning was not just increasing firewood supplies but to provide some 'seats' for the local school children. So some suitable 6' lengths of wood were loaded onto the trailer and duly delivered to the Sherborne school ready for use this coming weekend.

Batmen and Robin...

The Bat cave/residence!,  postcode a secret

A surprise from Mike {Batman 1} when he and Morris,  the North Cotswold caver and batman extraordinaire took me to the local Quarry 'cave' system this morning. I remained {as Robin !}  as the safety man outside whilst they conducted the bat count inside. I got my chance after the official count, to explore the inside with Morris as my guide. Hugely impressed to see the lesser horseshoe bats [~100] which looked like 'black leaves' suspended from the cotswold stone ceilings. Also one of the bats was clearly aware of the warm temperature outside and was flying around. Oddly there was also a single greater horseshoe bat happy to roost alongside its cousins. It transpires that this bat conservation project of the NT and the Bat Trust has kept Mike and Morris busy for over 8 years which included a good deal of 'building' work carried out by the two of them to shore up the cave system. A cracking effort. We finished this part of the day by examining other bat roosts in various Sherborne buildings/cellars. Small number of lesser horseshoes were spotted but come the spring these roosts will be busier as the bats from the quarry roost make their migration from the main winter roost.

Just a days work for super volunteer?

Rest of the day with Mike and previous day with Martin was on 'thinning' activities at Sherborne east belt and Dovers hill! Always difficult to predict what may happen on any given day with a ranger and this week certainly illustrated this. For example with Martin we visited Snowshill first thing where Linda the head gardener provided a couple more jobs for Martins long list i.e. planning for new drystone wall and removal of some difficult tree roots.   Added  to this was the job of cutting up a large Mulberry tree root which I and L &L {Linda and Lisa assistant gardener} had dug out over the last 2 days.

Having done this martin & I  moved onto Dovers hill where some early 'olympicks' preparation was done to allow the audience increased viewing for these original local games! More conventional thinning took place in lynch wood where in  particular a very accurate tree felling was carried out by Martin. With buckets of skill and little room for error she fell without damaging any of the trees in the fall line. I would have awarded Martin the gold but Mike just pipped him with an even finer { even less margin for error} tree felling feat in the east belt today. Either way M&M certainly make tree felling look easy {it isn't!} but of course the real work falls to me in stacking and clearing up the tons of wood all ready for blocking, splitting and selling!.

On the Rack...

No not a ranger technique for driving us volunteers harder but a fine days work on Bibury's Rack Isle. Given the weather had taken a turn for the better this week, Martin seized the opportunity to visit the Isle for some 'sedge' clearing with the aid of course of the 'beast', see below. At last the water courses surrounding and cutting through the Isle had a healthy amount of water spite of another dry year. So at the end of the day it was satisfying to leave this non woodland environment looking really good. Apart from the usual duck population spotted a water vole so must be doing something right.

the 'beast'

Spot the ranger!,  initial smoke fortunately disappeared

Earlier in the week worked with Mike, with the help of another 'beast',  on blocking & splitting at Sherborne. Two more loads of wood for members of the local community who continue to be happy with this service. Given the weather was amazingly good had chance at my break to visit the Pleasure grounds where the snowdrops are in abundance and in one corner where early daffodils, crocus and aconites provided great colour. Finished the day off with a continuation of fence clearing down in the water meadows, still plenty to do here! 

Beast 2 Maddie,  Mike's dog attempting to 'help'

All in all a satisfying week capped off with my first sighting of not one but four short eared owls!!!!

Messing about on the river...

Well more a brook actually and on a chilly February 2012 morning, a good hard days fence clearing down in the water meadows and south belt. Lots of pleasant surprises starting with Mike announcing a change of task from blocking to a trip down to the water meadows to get the cotswold wardens started on their tasks and us to cut back some vigorous grey willow growth by the brook. This required some careful attention to the nearby fast running brook lest we took an unplanned dip!

windrush path to the water meadows

Being used to working with rangers in splendid isolation {one or two exceptions with Martin e.g. Bibury!} it was good for a change to meet up with other volunteers. In fact later that morning we also met up with the volunteer team from the wildlife trust who were doing stirling work on the 'ditches'.  So a veritable army of people working in the countryside but no shortage  of work to do today and for a good number of days into the future.

courtesy WT volunteer Mike

As an extra bonus as Mike drove down to the work site this morning I spotted a buzzard and kite. This was somewhat trumped as eagle eyed Mike spotted a magnificent  male hen harrier perched on a bush adjacent to the fence we were to clear. It even provided us with a 'fly by' as it took to the air but flew low over the ground in its classic hunting style. Didn't see any of the  'short eared' owls in the area but you can't have everything.

More fencing work in the afternoon followed but this time in the South Belt area where Mike with pole saw cut back a long row of trees whilst I struggled to remove the 'old to be replaced' fence frozen into the hard ground {using wire cutters and much cursing}. Back to splendid isolation, bitter cold and sadly one dead deer which had come off  worse with a vehicle on the A40.