With the lease now sorted we can start to work on the land. We can’t do much on the habitat side of things until we have had bio-diversity baseline surveys to establish what we have now. But we can start to clear the paths to make the place a bit more safe and enjoyable for the local community. There are a network of well used paths that have been established over many years, but they have recently become overgrown and abandoned due to encroaching brambles.
We also thought this would be a nice opportunity to meet our new neighbours in Speen. Word went out and spread by the local community WhatsApp groups and we had a good turn out of around 15 people. Everyone was very enthusiastic and very lovely people to meet, it is clear that the nature reserve will be well appreciated by the local community.
We have to do a safety brief and this was the first time we have tried out our new safety brief on the nature reserve, that has been adapted from previous hedge-laying courses we ran. We also had a new collection of tools to support larger groups, with a good range of tools for people of different abilities and confidence. Some people were keen to get stuck in with the power tools that munch brambles for breakfast, whilst others were happy to help tidy up the mess the power tools make, which is an equally important contribution.
We got more done than we had anticipated, clearing most of the main paths in the meadows north of Moor Lane. We have restored access along some of the longer stretches that make circular walks and loops.
A couple of weeks later it is nice to see that the paths are being well used by the evidence of footfall in the mud. I was bat watching at dusk one evening and saw some dog walkers with a flashing light collar on the dog, I could see the flashing lights go round a lot of different paths, looping around the different sections and back on themselves. It is nice to see that people or at least the dogs like having a variety of paths to choose to make different circuitous walks.
There were also quite a few people who were unable to attend and have signed up to the mailing list for future work parties. We will be doing at least another one this year, probably to punch a circular path into the southern meadow around the lakes and back up through the Eastern meadow to join the existing paths, making a much larger circular walk that crosses moor lane twice, but serves as an alternative to walking down Moor Lane. We will also look to put hot food on if we get enough people signed up to attend.
If you are interested in getting involved please visit our volunteer page…