Great workday today. Aaron, John and myself and we cleared a lot of ash saplings in the picnic clearing.

Just loads of saplings shooting up. We cut them back and created a habitat pile rather than starting a bonfire and having to waste time and effort tending it.

We then cut back a few of the trees up the bank to allow more sunlight to hit the ground.

We built up our hedge and just need to encourage bramble to grow over it so that it becomes a good food source as well as a good wildlife habitat.

This year and probably moving forwards, I want us to get back to how we used to work, which is much more focused on creating a diverse wildlife habitat. We need the sun to hit the south-easterly facing bank for as long as it can, so a nice open path with a lot of the shading trees taken out and tear-drop scallops cut into the scrub to really catch the last rays of the sun as it moves round.

One thing that was nice to see today was rotting logs with loads of bore-holes. This means that there are a load of insects burrowed into them and they will attract birds and mammals in the spring.

Cannot see us having our license to work beyond Potford’s Dam on Sunday so we will be back at Berrybanks at 1:30pm and just try and create a habitat zone with the bramble.

Good work today.

Paul