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Boar's Well Urban Wildlife Reserve

Clearing the spring at Boar's Well
BEES have been involved in the management of the Reserve since the year 2000

Boars Well pond clearance in Oct 2005Boars Well pond clearance in Oct 2005Boars Well Urban Wildlife Reserve sits on the hillside above Canal Road. It is council land and the responsibility of the Countryside and Rights of Way team. . Our key tasks involve keeping the pathways accessible. BEES have been involved in the management of the Reserve for the past 8 years, controlling the spread of Japanese Knotweed and Himalayan Balsam, management of the wildflower meadow and the pond.

The Reserve is on a south facing slope and is a popular site for butterflies and birds. Kestrels nest on or near the site each year and can often be seen hunting over the hillside.

Geolocation

53.807309, -1.752372

Conservation Work

Friday 18th Sept: Boar’s Well Urban Wildlife Reserve, Kings Road, BD2

Friday 18th September 2009 Boars Well Urban Wildlife Reserve: Pond clearingPond clearing

 Today carried out pond management to remove the dominant plants and create an improved habitat. We also continued our work to remove the invasive Japanese knotweed on the site, cut and raked two meadow areas which will improve the potential for wildflowers next year and in one area planted locally sourced Yellow rattle seed to add to the diversity.

Today we worked with 11 volunteers and introduced our new long term volunteer Raquel seen in the pond who will be working with BEES until July 2010.

Click here for more pictures of the day 

Friday 18th June 2010: Boar’s Well Urban Wildlife Reserve

smiling in the drizzlesmiling in the drizzle Today we began our summer management programme to ensure access to the Reserve is good, and to help the biodiversity of the site by controlling the Japanese Knotweed and Himalayan Balsam. Luckily it was raining in the morning so we were dressed in long sleeves - this protected us from the worst of the nettles even though many of us complained of sore wrists by the end of the day.

The Japanese Knotweed, though significantly reduced from when we began our campaign many years ago, is still hanging on. It would be good to explore injecting herbicide into the hollow stems to try and tackle the last bits as the task gets more unpleasant the more other species are colonising amongst it. We would not want to spray it on the leaves as this would be detrimental to the other plants.

One team of volunteers cleared over hanging branches and mowed the path edges.

It was pleasing to see that the yellow rattle seed that that we sowed last year has germinated and the plants are flowering. We will need to poach the soil later in the summer so new seed will germinate.

13 volunteers were involved today.