Task Reports

Today's task: Tree planting, with Ian Butterfield and the Forest of Bradford team .

At the northern reaches of The Peak District, south of Huddersfield, is Butterley Reservoir. The task today, planting native species such as, holly, oak, hawthorn, Scots pine and hazel. This tree planting was commisined by Yorkshire Water to prevent soil erosion and to minimise flooding. Due to our elevation, topography and the season, the weather was rather fresh.

With breath-taking scenery, and a marvel of Victorian engineering to admire, members of the team were somewhat distracted from the task in hand.  We were treated by the sighting of two kestrels and one rather timid flighty vole or something of similar description.

Everyone looks forward to visiting this location again.

Another murky day at Lower Fields, but the weather didn’t dampen our spirits as we tackled the tree tasks. 

This involved coppicing several clumps of willow to ensure the trees were not growing over the pathways and open areas. We also felled a few small Ash trees from the entrance to the amphitheatre.  

Some of the felled trees were used to create a low fence around the pond. 

We also dug up some young Ash saplings for Forest of Bradford to use in their planting schemes, and had a little fun weaving part of a mature willow dome. 

Today we started to explore the best way of developing a food growing area at Bolton St James church. It involved levelling some sloping ground to decide how best to install growing beds. Our favourite tool, the mattock, came into its own.

There were plenty of other tasks too; pallets were used to make a start on constructing a compost bin, roots of plants were dug out from the pathways, composting plant material was raked away to define the garden space, and two apple trees were planted at the front of the church. 

Today we continued with the brash burning that we started last week. We managed to deal with all the remaining off-cuts from the hedge (the larger trunks will be used more constructively) and now the space is ready to work as a garden again.

There is still a lot of litter to remove but the increased light and space will aid the fruit and veg growing.

We will be getting creative next week when we install a couple of benches, make a start on constructing growing beds and work with the local primary school to plant some fruit.

Today we returned to the Parkside Centre to work on the food growing area. Essentially this meant clearing the brash generated from the hedgelaying at the end of last year. Any logs over 5cm diameter were taken away to be used more productively, but the twiggy bits were burnt. This occupied all us for most of the day and we made a good impact. 

Before we left we made use of the snow around the fire and from the car park to smother the fire. We will continue with this next week, but will also start some more constructive jobs. 

Our youngest volunteer!We visit Rodley every year to undertake some coppicing. Unusually for us we were not planning to harvest anything for ourselves (no plans for willow structures, and unclear what the access to St Ives for charcoal making will be in the near future) but were more than happy to be set the task of coppicing this year’s coupe. We cleared a good area. Some of the larger stuff was passed over the fence were Rodley volunteers were repairing dead-hedging, and some will be used for a project in the Manager’s Garden. 

The minibus was full, and we had a new volunteer whom we believe to be our youngest to date. Welcome Arthur aged 4. Some volunteers sensibly took advantage to sit in the hides and watch the birds. 

We always dedicate the first task of the year to tool maintenance and making a start on updating the inventory. 

The sharp edged tools were honed with files and stones in the workshops. Spades got new handles. Bowsaws were fixed and sharpened. Glenford and David had done an absolutely fabulous job of reorganising the sheds over the Christmas period. They continued with this today – it is going to make it so much easier to keep the tools organised and accessible, thank you.

Happy New Year

Merry Christmas

Today a full minibus travelled to Otterburn to join Forest of Bradford with our tradition pre-Christmas tree planting. We joined the FoB volunteers in planting a hedge at the top of a ditch. The plants were mainly hawthorn, but also some hazel, holly and other things.

Those without hats regretted it during the hail showers, but we all enjoyed the vivid rainbows that guided us off the hillside and on to Naylor’s Brewery for a quick drink on the way home (thanks to them for opening up early).