Here is Jonathan’s latest message
Greetings All,
Two sessions – this Wednesday, then Saturday – for your attention in this
Fairfield Orchard, Fauna and Flora volunteer session newsletter.
First up: Wednesday 6th April.
There will be further brash burning. Meeting at the shed at 9.30am, you’ll
be asked to haul brash to the bonfire and in return you’ll receive
unending gratitude.
Second up: Saturday 9th April.
A variety of activities for your pleasure and delight.
This session begins at 10.00am and finishes in the approximate postcode of
1.00pm. On Saturday’s To Do list:
* Clear debris and unwanted growth from the shed green roof.
* Finish planting hedge saplings in the gaps in the Long Pads / Flora
Field hedge.
* Tidy and collect surplus sapling protectors from the south and west
hedges of West Field.
* Check and fix any gaps in the West Field west hedge.
* Dig out bramble from the Orchard, especially between the apple trees and
Orchard House garden. Also dig out bramble near the Fauna Stones and over
the hedge in the Paddock.
Create habitat piles in Pony Wood from the felled and dead sycamore.
And that in a nutshell is your Fairfield volunteering week all sorted out
for you. Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Jonathan.
Here is what we did on the Saturday
Seventeen volunteers reported for the Saturday volunteering session on a lovely spring morning.
• The shed roof was weeded to remove debris and the hundreds of sycamore saplings which have recently germinated. SUGGESTION: Use fine mesh netting to catch the sycamore seeds. This should save us a really tedious job.
• The felled sycamore in Pony Wood was converted into log and brash piles further back in the wood so as not to be as tempting for firewood collectors and camp fires. This also increases the safety of the location for school groups.
• The remaining hedge saplings were planted in the gap just beyond the concrete wall on the Long Pads footpath.
• Surplus sapling protectors were collected from the west and south hedges of West Field.
• The west fence of West Field was check for possible lamb escape routes and possibilities blocked with brash.
• Potential fencing posts from the felled sycamore (4/4/16 above) were moved to the storage pile near the south gate of West Field.
• The corrugated iron sheets used for the bonfire (6/4/16 above) were moved back to the shed storage area.
• The stakes used to mark out the beetle banks for the ploughman were removed so as not to act as perches for corvidae threatening ground nesting birds. (Advice from one of our birders).
• A further gap was filled with stakes and withers in the hedge at the bottom of the Towneley Close path.
• Apple tree brash was tidied in the Orchard.
• Bramble was dug and /or cut out from the Orchard (alongside the Orchard House garden), from the Fauna path near the stones and from in the Paddock.