Author: newtcharity

As we have done tree work we have generated a lot of scrub and brush wood. We left it in piles to rot down and become a home for whatever might want to live there. Insects, Small Mammals, Amphibians and Reptiles all enjoy a good pile of sticks! We are delighted to welcome our first […]

You often hear about traditional hedgelaying in conservation projects involved with landscape regeneration, such as NEWT. Which may seem strange to make manmade features into the land for the restoration of nature. Farmers of yesteryear certainly didn’t pay labourers to lay hedges up and down the country for the benefit of the birds either. It […]

We have three separate meadows that are all quite different. We need to formulate our approach to management and it is clear the strategies for each one will vary somewhat by its unique characteristics. Traditionally they would have been maintained as water meadows for growing hay for animal feed, but this practice has long passed […]

This isn’t the ideal time of year to be doing treework, ideally I would do this in winter as there is less vegetation so less effort clearing your working space, the trees have less sap which is stored in their roots over winter and no leaves so are lighter, thus less dangerous and easier to […]

I believe to improve something, you must be able to measure it in some way. Surveys of nature are inherently time consuming and suffer from huge statistical variations. For example try and count how many bees are in a 1 metre patch in a minute and you will hit a multitude of problems. For a […]

I very pleased that we have successfully navigated the charity application process and are now a Registered Charity Number 1189097 NEWBURY ENVIRONMENT AND WILDLIFE TEAM. Thank you to people who contributed towards this. There is still much to do on the setup side, such as bank account, insurance, etc. But getting the registration was the prerequisite for […]

Become a charity we must. It will allow us to enter into long term agreements with landowners, apply for grants and funding and get insurance for our volunteers. We also get a 75% discount on trees from the Woodland Trust if we are a charity. I must admit that I am happier with a billhook […]

Another afternoon away from the office for a stroll, in what was this time, a much wetter place. About 1′ deep too wet in places! The council was a similar experience to our previous meetings, where all our ideas were met very positively. Again it would be necessary to be a registered charity and have […]

Another welly boot meeting on the ground but this time with Thames Water. I am really enjoying this new found alternative format for business meetings to the office, as it was another chance to get some fresh air in daylight hours and appreciate nature on a nice walk. This was also the first time I […]

We had a welly boot meeting on site with the Environment Agency. We walked around the whole area that our projects cover. It was obvious they share the same passion as we do for the environment and were incredibly supportive of our plans. It was particularly useful to understand their approach to managing the watercourses […]