New Year Worky Day

A record number of volunteers gave up their Saturday to work on habitat improvement across the Reserve. Due to the unusually high turnout we were able to field three separate teams which allowed much-needed tasks to be completed. The 'Kingfisher' team finished creating two new net rides which will be in use from tomorrow onwards.

Down at the clear fell site the 'Firecrests' tidied up the remains of the recent windblow which had occurred during the last week. Despite this being tedious work, it was essential to allow the re-planting to get underway.

The 'Grey Squirrels' continued to coppice the Hazel along the banks of Risedale Beck and shredded the stems to make woodchip for the path that was edged by the mid-week volunteers.

An area of dense Blackthorn was tackled as well, although there remains much to be completed next week.

The 'Fox' team soon became expert at solving 'technical glitches' with the chipper as you can see here.

However, for most of the day it was at full tilt.

The young 'Otters' surfaced a muddy path with the woodchips in no time at all!

Thanks go to everyone who participated for an extremely productive day.