Good day today with Aaron, Reece and myself chopping a load of this scrub out.
We thought it would be a nice feature in the summer, last season, and tried to create a path around the back of it. However, it didn’t really work out. So it has to go. We want the clearings in the cuttings to be a haven for butterflies and bees. The bits of the path that are are on embankment are full of trees and will be good for birds and mammals.
Thanks to all who made it today. Cold and wet but so worth it.
Paul
Good turn-out with Linda, Anna, Wayne, Mick and myself. We had two brush-cutters on the go and really pushed back the summer growth and scrub.
We burnt off all the brash as Mick and Wayne cut it back. We just need to keep clearing all the way up to the bridge that goes over the greenway.
Last year we left scrub, but this year, we have decided to rip it all out.
This is the nice open glade that we will want in sections that are in cutting.
We will keep the trees and the scrub around them, and can see what comes up in the cleared bits in the spring.
We have started to mow a strip each side of the dirt path. This will make it easier for walkers and cyclists to access the path.
I walked down past Potford’s Dam and towards Dunchurch Station by the A45. This area is pretty clear and very dry. I will do the management plan for this section in the week and we can crack on with it.
Thanks to all who made it today.
Paul
Marcus, Mick and me made it today. Reece somehow missed us, and Wayne got there after we had all gone, so did a bit of widening just south of Potford’s Dam
We started back in the Bird-Box clearing and found it easy to pull up the growth from the summer. We are going to work off this point for now and just clear the whole cutting out up and down the path.
We just need to rip all the bramble, nettles and dead growth out. If we can get the roots of the brambles out, then their growth will be much slowed next summer.
Good start today and after a good old look around, we just need to clear out as much bramble as possible.
Dates for November:
Saturday 5th 1:30pm
Wednesday 9th 9:30am
Sunday 13th 1:30pm (Potford’s Dam to Draycote end)
Wednesday 16th 9:30am
Wednesday 23rd 9:30am
Wednesday 30th 9:30am
If you need me to jig the dates in future months so that it fits in with anyone’s work schedule, just let me know. Wednesday workdays are 9:30 to 11:30. Weekenders are 1:30 to 4:00.
Thanks all who made it today, and to those that we missed, sorry, poor communication.
Paul
A great turn-out today with seven of us. Mick, Aaron, Tim, Sophia, Peter, Janet and me. Basically we just had a mad tidy-up of all the brash from previous workdays, when it was too wet, or time was short, for a really good bonfire.
We also cut a lot of stumps to ground-level.
Personally, I am pretty much done with this section for the time being. It just feels like it is sucking up so much of our time. We still need to remove a couple of stumps and sow our meadow-mix seeds, but for now I just want to move on for a bit.
Loads of brash to untangle and burn off. Not the best of jobs, but we got through it eventually.
Starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Please remind me never to let the brash build up so much.
We built a big south-facing log pile.
This will be a great habitat for sun-loving insects in the summer, and will be really damp on the other side and as it rots it will be valuable habitat for stag beetles, centipedes, woodlice and hedgehogs, and plants including species of moss, fungi and liverwort are just a small number of the animals and plants dependent in some way upon dead wood.
We are starting to get a fair bit of fungi growing in all the rotting wood. It is going to be difficult to work around these areas, but well worth keeping.
Good clear-up day today. Next workday is Wednesday down the line at the bird-box clearing. We just need to push down on the last bit of this clearing that is in cutting.
Workday dates for the month are on the blog’s main page. Our Potford’s Dam to Draycote workday is the second Sunday of November and we are allowed to work on this area, but we are not allowed to use power-tools yet. David, the Ecologist from Sustrans has given us the go-ahead.
Thanks to all who made it today. We really made a difference.
Paul
As we get bigger and bigger, as a group, we need a couple of regulars that are First Aid trained.
I nominate myself as one of the people to be trained. I am there on every workday, so it makes sense.
Ideally, we could do with some other people or person who would be willing to be trained.
If you would like to be First Aid trained then let me know. We can then work out some dates that can fit in with the trainer.
Just let me know via this blog or our fb page at https://www.facebook.com/cawstongreenway
Thanks in advance.
Paul
This is the plan for this winter:
We cut three new glades in the section from the start, next to HHJS, to The Bear. I want to just gently push these back and let more light in. Over time I want to expand these glades so that they are big enough to attract butterflies and bees.
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Get our wild-flower meadow mix sown at Berrybanks. We have enough to sow 30 square meters. If it takes and looks good we can buy a bulk load and sow a load more to create a wild-flower meadow on the base of the cutting.
Create a Kidney Vetch strip three meters by one meter and weed out anything else. This will give the Kidney Vetch chance to really get established and attract the Small Blue butterfly.
Extend the picnic and bird-box clearing so that the whole of the cutting is open.
Widen the path where it is on embankment, so that it feels more like a woodland ride.
Hook-up with Men in Sheds and see if they can make us some gates and picnic benches.
Potford’s Dam to Draycote:
I will walk the path and put together a plan. Hopefully Sustrans will approve this and we can get on with connecting up with NCN 41. It just needs a few measures that will stop unauthorised motorised vehicles. Men in Sheds and gates??
It is all looking pretty good.
We have finally started to burn off the brash at Berrybanks. We seem to have had quite a few wet days on previous workdays, so we left the brash until it was dry. Today was that day and we got a fair bit burnt off. We also made a wood pile with the larger branches.
Great to see four of us make it today. Marcus, Mick, David and myself. David is an ecologist and works for Sustrans, so it was great to hear his input and pointers.
Basically the recommendations are:
Ger a proper First Aid kit and two people need to be First Aid trained.
Health and Safety and Risk Assessment on each workday.
A bucket of sand or water in case a fire gets out of control.
How to cut branches and trees down safely and not compromise the health of the tree.
How dangerous tree stumps, that are not at ground-level, can be to cyclists and walkers.
How brash should be dealt with and not just left in huge tangled piles or just dumped onto the remaining scrub, but instead dead-hedged, stacked out of the way, or burnt off.
How we can make access for motorised vehicles difficult by smart hedging.
There are probably more things that David suggested and I am sure that I will remember by the next workday. It was great to get the pointers and to be fair to Mick, he has been saying the same things for the last few years!!
I think we maybe need to slow down a bit and, be a bit more thoughtful in what we do.
Next workday is our family weekender. This is going to be on Saturday 22nd October and hopefully will be our last one at Berrybanks for a while. We need to cut down any stumps to ground-level, sow our Kidney Vetch strip and our wild-flower meadow mix, and get rid of any remaining brash and overhang. 1:30pm start – beer in The Bear at 4pm!!
Thanks to all who made it today. Was a good learning experience.
Paul
Well what a good turn-out today, with I reckon 20+ people volunteering to get some clearings made on the section between The Bear and the start of the railway path next to Henry Hinde Junior School.
Some nice log piles made and really airy clearings. From a distance you can see the pool of sunlight that these clearings have created.
We can just keep knocking back the clearings over the next few years and then see what grows in the sunshine.
The last clearing. This is where the footpath that runs around Henry Hinde Junior School joins the greenway.
Massive thanks to everyone who made it today. We are growing in numbers and making a real difference. When we get the licence to do the Draycote end, we will have our traffic-free path down to Draycote Water and Leamington Spa.
If anyone wants to join us on our regular workdays, you will be most welcome.
Links:
https://cawstongreenway.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/cawstongreenway/
https://www.streetlife.com/conversation/mbfd83l0m9l2/
Thanks again to everyone.
Paul
I will send a message to the golf club that we have changed venue. If anyone turns up there, they can redirect them to The Bear bridge. I have been in touch with Sustrans (the land owners) and all is good. It is just about dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.
Please just bear with me. Really looking forward to Sunday. If we can make some good clearings and then get Men In Sheds to bang out some rustic picnic benches, we will be doing well. I hope to have all the bits in place for the Draycote end ready for November.
I can taste that beer in The Bear after Sunday’s workday!!! Haha!! 😀
Mick, Aaron and me down at Berrybanks again today. It is slow and hard work and we are literally inching along at a painfully slow pace.
This is where we are at, a nice V shape with a flat bottom. We just need to keep cutting back the overhang.
This photo shows where we are heading to, and the overhanging branches that need to be removed, if the path is ever to dry out.
Workday dates for the coming month can be found at
http://www.cawstongreenway.wordpress.com
or
http://www.facebook.com/cawstongreenway
There is loads to do and I feel like we are getting a bit bogged down in this section. We probably need fresh new blades for our saws and just dig deep to push on.
We need to spend time digging out the stumps of the felled trees, too.
I have a thread on streetlife that is more about the other end
http://www.streetlife.com/conversation/mbfd83l0m9l2/
We are close to getting our licence to work on the Potford’s Dam to Draycote bit and open up the path to get down to Draycote Water. It is all looking really good.
Great work today.
Paul
