Continuing Work on Net Rides

Tuesday, February 6th 2018

Although the forecast for snow to have fallen by the time we got to Foxglove this morning proved to be wrong, the day started out cold and snow eventually fell throughout most of the day, although mostly it was light.  Today's volunteers were tasked with completing the work on five of the net rides that was started with the Worky Day on Saturday.

While some started on more pruning back of the trees along the net rides, others got the fire going to burn the brash that was being produced.  WIth the polesaw and two chainsaws available for use and with most volunteers being armed with loppers and bowsaws, a large amount of brash was produced very quickly, filling most of the ride.  The amount of brash in net ride 18 was only the tip of the iceberg as the piles continued around the corner into net rides 20, 21 and 22.

Adding further to the cut material was the limbs and trunk of a large Silver Birch and a number of smaller ones which were removed as they were in the area of Willow Carr and needed to be removed to stop them colonising the habitat.  

A total of eight volunteers were at Foxglove today and they soon settled into a pattern of cutting and pruning the trees, cutting the brash into smaller sections and then taking this to feed the bonfire.  As piles were removed from the ride, the brash from further away was brought up to the fire site to be processed and burnt.

This meant that the rides could be left in a tidy condition, if not more than a little muddy from where everyone had been walking.  However, the opening up of the rides will have a benefit for both the ground flora in the next few weeks and for ringing as the height of the vegetation caused many of the birds to fly higher over the mist nets.

Thanks to all involved today, a lot was achieved due to their efforts.  The only down side to the day was that people couldn't decide whether they should have brought potatoes or marshmellows (or both!) for the fire.  Perhaps they will have decided by next Tuesday when we will be moving on to work on another net ride.

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