TREE DOWN!!

Posted on February 26, 2017 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Tree down on the greenway. Unfortunately discovered at the end of our workday, so it will have to wait until next time to be cleared.

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However, easy to walk around it, so not a problem.

Aaron, Linda, Howard and myself made it today. We tackled the southerly part of the big clearing and just took the last remaining bit of scrub out, before the path levels and then goes onto embankment.

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We widened the path on the left hand side up to the tree in the centre of the path.

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Looking back from that tree, we then switched to clearing the right hand side and really scalloped the cutting. If we scallop back and forth, left to right, we will create loads of micro-habitats that will be warm and full of wildlife.

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Looking towards Rugby, this clearing has a lot of potential for excellent wild flowers in the spring.

Fungi finds are this strange looking thing.

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Lastly, we had a few interested onlookers today.

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Good work today and only a month of cutting back left before the bird-nesting season starts. When we get into April the main focus will be removing all the tree stumps on the path.

 

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All About The Ballast Ridge

Posted on February 23, 2017 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Today we kind of split up. Mick went north of the underpass to cut back bramble with the brush cutter, I started to clear the ballast ridge and create a new path, south of the underpass, and Aaron was down the path, clearing the canopy to let sunlight in.

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Pics to and from where I cleared. Good and dry ballast path with big trees as features.

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This is the muddy path that we want to avoid. We will try and get people off this so that it can compact and consolidate in the summer.

Some good fungi finds..

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Good day today. Loads of people using the greenway and good work done.

Paul

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Wildlife Habitat Piles

Posted on February 15, 2017 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

First off – look above and you will see a new heading on the menu bar. We should be recording wildlife that we are seeing. In the spring and summer we can add butterflies, wild-flowers and anything else. It also opens us up as a group to anyone who is interested in nature, but unable to get involved with the physical side of the work.

Today was going to be cutting back ash tree shoots, but we instead cleared all the brash that was around the underpass.

Carrina, Marcus, Mick and myself made it today and luckily dodged the rain to make a real difference in this area.

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This is the habitat pile south of the underpass. This will be great for fungi because it will be mostly shaded. However the area is much lighter due to the canopy being opened up slightly.

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This is the habitat pile on the north side of the underpass. This will be in full sunshine so will attract wildlife that likes to stay warm.

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And here we are working away. Mick is ripping out bramble whilst the rest of us chopped and stacked all the brash that was lying about.

Meet at the underpass next Wednesday and work southbound extending a couple of natural glades that exist.

Lastly, just a note about why we are cutting back. If we just leave it, the path will become overgrown and impenetrable. The trees need to be coppiced  (cut back) once every ten years. So we need to be cutting 10% of the trees each year and create a cycle that allows differing habitats with each year of growth. The bramble is the same but on a three year cycle. Again, this creates three different habitats. Year one is new growth, year two is flowering and fruit, year three is aged scrub. New wildlife will arrive and new wild flowers will grow on the bare ground. The path itself will be mowed each side of the inner strip, after any wild flowers have bloomed and seeded, so that we have a three metre wide grassy path. This is the advice that we have from the ecologists as Sustrans, who own the land. I will put in colour-coded marker-stakes at some point to show what areas are at what stage of growth.

Great work today,

Paul

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Why did the mushroom get invited to all the parties? – ‘Cuz he’s a fungi!

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

And fun was had on the greenway today as we created a new habitat zone, and explored the fungi in the area. Just Aaron and myself today and we cracked on with removing canopy to let light in. We also raked all the leaves and bits of twigs and branches into little habitat piles. We also created a big dead hedge that will get a load of bramble growing over it, in the summer.

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You can see the dead hedge forming as we cleared the ground. We thought about where the sun would be, and tried to open up windows in the canopy. It will be interesting to see what starts to grow in this area. We have disturbed the ground by raking it over, and this will help any dormant seeds to germinate.

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A nice big bank of scrub that will grow over the dead hedge pile.

And onto the fungi…

Loads of really nice specimens happily growing in the area that we are working in. I will try and get them identified later in the week.

Lastly, moss it seems, is quite picky about where it wants to grow!!

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Well that’s about it. Wednesday is the next one, removing the ash saplings between the underpass and the picnic clearing.

Paul

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Sunday Workday

Posted on February 5, 2017 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Great workday today. Linda, Aaron, Mick, Tim and myself were treated to a nice bit of winter sun as we worked to clear off the south facing bank at Berrybanks.

Having cleared the dead vegetation from last year, we found lots of new things starting to grow.

We sowed our calcareous wild-flower and grass seed mix. If it takes and is a success we can extend it for the whole length of the cutting and have a superb wild-flower meadow.

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Fungi finds today were equally exciting. There is Jelly Ear growing on our new wood-pile and this other strange thing which I will try and identify later on.

Dead wood is full of bore-holes so will be full of insects in the spring.

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And our dead-hedges are getting covered with bramble. This will be such a fantastic food store for birds and mammals in the autumn.

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Lastly, we have a lot of really lovely moss that is growing over a lot of the dead wood. This is yet another wildlife avenue that we can go down and learn about. And I found a little sprig of holly growing, which will be lovely if we can get it onto the dead-hedge.

Next workday is next Sunday with our “community second Sunday in the month” that was supposed to be clearing the path down to Draycote. Still waiting for the paperwork so if we have it, we will be down by the A45 doing a massive litter-pick, if not, we will be in the picnic clearing cutting back ash trees to allow sunlight to hit the ground on the south-east facing bank.

Thanks to all who made it today. It is starting to get a little bit interesting.

Paul

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Summary of Sustrans meeting and Feb workdays

Posted on February 2, 2017 by Paul - Cawston Greenway
I am just trying to summarise what we learnt last week with Dan and David from Sustrans. Please add anything that I have missed out.

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Clear scrub from around the base of trees.

Cut back trees or branches that are rubbing.

Use the three cut method when cutting branches.

Cut branches back to the collar.

Much deeper scallops.

Bramble scrub flowers and fruits in the second year so need rotational cutting back every three years.

Need different ages of scrub for different wildlife, hence the cycles.

Trees to be coppiced on a ten year cycle.

Keep the path as dog-legged as possible to deter motorcycles.

Keep the path from A45, to NCN 41 marker-post, approx 1 mtr wide.

Use straight branches to edge the path and retain any gravel or ballast used to raise wet areas.

Create habitat piles away from the path.

Maintain wetland area just past A45 and try to dig channels to drain other wet areas into it.

Be watchful and mindful of fungi and do not disturb it.

Don’t chop down ancient trees but do clear any young trees and scrub that are going to get tangled if left unchecked.

Workdays for February 2017
Sunday 5th 1:30 to 4 – Rake up a load of the bark chippings and sow the wild-flower meadow-mix seeds at Berrybanks.
Sunday 12th 1:30 to 4 – If we have our license to work beyond Potford Dam, then down by the A45, if not in the picnic clearing ripping trees on the north side of the bridge.
Wednesday 15th 9:30 to 11:30 – Clear ash saplings between picnic clearing and underpass.
Wednesday 22nd 9:30 to 11:30 – Clear ash saplings between picnic clearing and underpass.
Sunday 26th 1:30 to 4 – Widen path south of picnic clearing.
Thanks all,
Paul
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Kidney Vetch Zone is Down

Posted on January 22, 2017 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Great day on the greenway today. We managed to pick up a load of litter and also plant our Kidney Vetch seeds.

Great to see Aaron, Mick, Jo, Neve, Howard and myself turning out on a cold day. We were lucky to have some winter sun towards the end of the day.

Kidney Vetch is the sole food plant for the endangered Small Blue butterfly.

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We cleared a two to three metre strip up the south-east facing side of the bridge and then made two, metre square areas seeded with Kidney Vetch. We can weed out anything else that grows to give it a real chance. Ideally we just want grass and Kidney Vetch.

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We also brush-cut the path through the glade to help it to dry out.

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And lastly, we have bramble growing over our dead-hedge. This will be superb in the autumn when it is full of fruit and a vital resource for birds and mammals.

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Thanks to all who helped today. Good progress. Next one is Wednesday 25th with Sustrans. 9.30 start meeting at the small roundabout where Cawston Grange Drive and Whitefriars Drive meet.

Paul

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AWOL

Posted on January 19, 2017 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Yes, that was me on this Wednesday’s workday. I had actually put a note on our facebook page saying that I could not make it, but tagged it onto the January workday dates and I guess it just got buried.

However, Aaron, Marcus, Peter and Catherine did get there and did a sterling job of clearing the litter around The Bear bridge.

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Apparently there is a load of beer cans (about 60 odd) down in the picnic clearing. Unfortunately they are all empty!! I will pop down on Saturday to clear up. We are then back in the picnic clearing on Sunday at 1:30 for our proper workday. We are creating habitat for wildlife so should be fun.

Thanks to all who made it today. Sorry for the poor communication.

Paul

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Misty Weekender

Posted on January 8, 2017 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Strange day today. We had a bit of sunshine and then it was a bit misty and damp. But it did not deter eight of us turning out and creating a super wildlife habitat at Berrybanks.

Well done Aaron, Jez, Gary, Linda, Carrina, Mick, Tim and myself for getting out there.

We created a space where we have clumps of scrub and areas of bare ground. When the sun gets into this area in the spring, the south-east facing bank will be a riot of wild flowers.

On the north-west facing bank we found quite a bit of fungi. Thanks to Gary and Mick for pointing it out. The names have since left my head, but here are the pictures.

We have a lot of wood on the ground and it will slowly rot down as it creates a habitat for a host of bugs. This picture shows what happens to the logs. Something has stripped the bark and all the bore-holes will be full of bugs that will attract birds and mammals. The moss will also be good for species that like damp habitat.

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The last picture shows how wide we have made the path. It is still very wet in places but where we have done this in other areas, the ground does dry out and grass starts to grow.

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You can see the mist starting to come down on this photo.

We have created a great habitat. As we worked today we could hear a lot of birds tweeting away. We found a toad, and this area is now set up to be really diverse in the summer.

It was also great to see so many people using the greenway for family walks or cycling.

Thanks everyone today. The rest of the month will be scheduled around what Sustrans want to do with our license to work beyond Potford’s Dam and the habitat management workshop that they want to run. Just keep an eye on the blog or facebook page for dates.

Hopefully we will fall into some sort of routine soon with a weekday-weekend-weekday schedule.

Paul

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First Workday of 2017

Posted on January 4, 2017 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

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

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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.

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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.

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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

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