Task Reports

Please contact the office if you are interested in volunteering and we will discuss details.

Conservation Work - Past

Rodley Nature Reserve

One of our favourite days of the year is our trip to Rodley to help with the willow coppicing. We worked on an area of larger trees and brought some of the wood away with us with the hope of using it for charcoal next year. As ever we had a good day and were impressed by the achievements of the Rodley volunteers.

We enjoyed watching the harvest mice in the visitor centre, and most of us took advantage of the shop to start (?) our Christmas shopping!

 

Old Spring Wood, Shipley

Top of Lynton Drive

Today we continued to help Friends of Northcliffe with the improvements to the area affected by the water mains burst at the top of Lynton Drive. After further weeding of the area 30 trees were planted to create a scrubby area for birds. The species planted were a mix of Hawthorn, Blackthorn with smaller Dogwood and Guelder Rose chosen to plant at the front of the patch.

We also removed a small amount of sycamore, and weeded around the trees planted by Yorkshire Water in the summer. Crocosmia and sycamore were removed from the wet flush  50 meters into the woods.

Meanwhile a team constructed 6 steps on the worst part of the steep muddy path that leads up to the meadow. The two people that past us during the afternoon bit said “thank you, I won’t slip

over anymore”. We will monitor the use of the path and see if more steps would be of benefit.   

Parkside Centre

Parkside Road, BD5

Preparing the garden for winter; clearing beds and planting garlic. The hedge we laid last year is looking great but we need to continue the job of grubbing out blackthorn suckers.  

BEES Urban Nature Reserve

Access from Laisteridge Lane, BD5

Our last pond work of the year, and a good job too as the quite a few of the waders seem to be leaking, or just wet (sorry Amy!). Despite the conditions (wet feet, rain, pond) both ponds had a good clearance with the focus being ono the bogbean which forms a dense root mass which can be hard to remove. 

Tesco say they will come and collect the trolley that was in the pond. And we hope the ‘beavers’ don’t return to put all the logs back in the pond.

All the paths, meadow and parts of the railway cutting were cut and raked. 

In the winter we will be thinning some of the trees to let more light into the ponds and woodland floor.

 

Northcliffe Woods, Shipley

Entrance on Cliff Wood Avenue

The day started wet, and we expected to retreat early cold and soggy. So we were pleasantly surprised by the lovely autumnal afternoon. Our decision to make a start on the pond work in September proved to be very wise. The water levels today, after all the rain, meant it was not possible to get in the deep end, even with our waders. However, that didn’t mean we weren’t busy. We managed to thoroughly empty the silt traps, and repair the wooden support of the banking adjacent to them. This required felling of a few sycamores to use the timber, but it will also allow a little more light in the pond. 

We dug out mud and shale from the pond, along the channel and an area of mud that has not become vegetated. There still seems to be some leakage through the dam wall, but now it seems ot be coming from the otherside…

The people afraid of the mud (!) undertook some useful work on the paths, digging off areas of leaf mould that leads to slippery sections of path. 

 

Chutney making at Culture Fusion

Chutney for marketChutney for marketNot all the apples from the orchard will be eaten fresh so we need to preserve some to make the most of the harvest. Today was a chance to prepare chutney, jam and apples rings (well more like slices as I forgot my corer) to prepare stocks for a market store at Shipley Alternative in November.  

We made Apple and Date Chutney, Apple and Green Tomato Chutney, Apple and Ginger Jam, and prepared some puree to make apple leathers.

APPLE DAY - Our annual public event

Bowling Park Community Orchard

Finger Puppets: Hannah's bee is taking her ladybird for a walk. Finger Puppets: Hannah's bee is taking her ladybird for a walkConsidering the weather we have had over the past few weeks today was a little disappointing. Nothing awful, just autumnal, but luckily it didn’t deter over 400 people coming for our annual celebration of all things apple (and English fruit in general). 

Again we were able to offer a full range of activities with the help of an invaluable team of volunteers, activity leaders from BCEP and stalls held by other groups.

With the help of the enthusiastic participants we made fresh juice from windfalls and other apples that had been stored in waiting (mainly Katy which continues to be such a prolific tree). 113 kg of orchard apples were sold; varieties including Ribston Pippin (always a favourite), Sunset, Arthur Turner, Katy, Grandpa Buxton, Kidd’s Orange Red, Bramley’s seedling, Belle de Boskoop, Egremont Russet and James Grieve. It was great to get help from several families during the afternoon in picking more apples to top up the supplies. 

Belle de Boskoop is a dual purpose apple. It makes a lovely baked apple, and it would normally only be considered ready for eating later in the year once more sugar has developed  but it still came out top in the tasting sessions that BCEP ran. 

Beardsworths Nursery again provided trees for sale and several people left Apple Day ready to grow their own fruit. Martin was busy all day with horticultural advice, and Anne had a stream of people requesting identification of their apples. 

The young people, and the not so young, were guided in scavenger hunts, drawing skills and in making finger puppets and name the apple game.

Cakes were eaten, orchard jams and chutneys were bought, as were lollies and fruit leathers supplied by Plenty and honey by Mark. Entertainment was provided by an impromptu assemblage of musicians. It was another successful Apple Day. Thanks everyone.

See some more pictures here

 

Bowling Park Community Orchard

in the allotments on Bowling Park Drive

 

The focus of today was to make sure the orchard was safe and ready to host Apple Day. A few of the wooden benches are in need of repair, but for the time being we have decided to remove those that are too wobbly to be safe.
 
Paths were cleared, the dogwood weeded and some of the beds weeded in preparation for planting crocuses as an early nectar source for our pollinators.
 
As well as the work at the orchard, there was also the job of gathering and loading all the stuff needed for Apple Day – tables, juicing kit, signs, activities, marquees etc etc. By the end of the day all was set, just the cakes to make.