Reevy Mill Dam

Captain Brass took able charge of the boat again today. Together with the enthusiastic assistance of David they managed to retrieve the accumulated litter from the water whilst others worked around the edge and in the grassy areas. Thanks to the Clean Team for collecting the rubbish.

We also cut and raked the grass, to benefit the wildflowers and cut back branches around the pathway.

8 volunteers

This is the annual cut of the grassland, plus clean out of the pond using the BEES boat in the pond to reach the parts of the pond that we cannot reach from the banks and general path maintenance.

Reevy Mill Dam is a former mill pond located in Buttershaw where Reevy Road and Reevy Avenue meet. It is now owned by the Council and managed for the benefit of people and wildlife by BEES.

6 volunteers and 2 members of staff were involved in todays task and we carried out the annual cut of the meadow area. The grass and wildflowers are allowed to grow throughout the year to provide a habitat for animals like frogs and provide food for insects like butterflies. The grass is then cut and raked in a similar method to hay meadow management the same plants will grow again because they have sown seed and the soil fertility kept as they require:

Plus litter picking over the whole site and excitingly we sailed the BEES rowing boat (named HMS Litter Picker) and collected refuse that had been stuck in the reeds for a long time.

The site looked much improved at the end of the task and this was commented on by one of the neighbours. We are grateful to the Council's Clean Team who took away all the refuse we collected namely 15 bin bags of litter, various road signs, a chair, fire extinguishers and road barriers.

Thanks to everyone that took part.

Today we will be working with a group of volunteers from HBOS Building Society to repair and resurface the path around the pond.

If you wish to volunteer today please phone the office to confirm details.

Proud bench installersWe have installed two new benches at the site. We chose to use recycled plastic and they feel very appropriate. We placed one at the head of the pond in a space that once housed a bench, but it disappeared long ago. We also replaced the rotten bench near the park. The final bench will be replaced later in the spring.

We also began to repair the path around the mill pond. This involved slicing the turf off the path surface to widen the path to about 1.2m. It had become so overgrown that it restricted anybody with limited mobility from using the footpath safely. We were joined by students from Buttershaw School, who worked hard to clear the path and to help with the bench installation.

There were six volunteers today. We started off in thick fog but by the end of the day we were in lovely sunshine, reflecting our satisfaction with the completed task.

View more photos in the gallery

Reevy Mill DamThe day was spent cutting the grass and nettle areas and continuing to clear the path. We also had to remove some damaged tree branches.

Eleven volunteers worked today with a mixture of traditional hand tools - the scythes, sickles and hay rakes - and the auto-scythe with allows efficient cutting at the base of the vegetation.

We normally take our boat to the dam at this time of year to collect litter in the reeds, however today we focused on the waters edge and grassland. Several passers-by commented on the reduction for litter for the site.We appreciate the support of the Clean Team who collected the bulky waste.

Canada Geese with goslingsToday’s visit concentrated on meadow management, this involved cutting some of the grass areas that are likely to be used by the public to keep the site accessible, while leaving other areas to grow long and allow the wildflowers to bloom. This will provide nectar for insects including butterflies during the summer. The site has benefited from regular litter collections but we still managed to collect a number of fly tipped items and general litter. After some further general maintenance we found ourselves in the unusaul position of completing our work. This gave us the opportunity to split into two groups one to visit Brackenhill to check the bridge and the other to visit BEES UNR to check on and remove the giant hogweed.

Today we worked with 12 volunteers

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Using the boat to collect litter We took the boat to the site today so that we were able to collect litter that has accumulated in amongst the reeds. This is the least intrusive time of year for this as moorhens have successfully nested there for a number of years now. It proved very successful and with this and the other litter collected around the site we collected some 15 bags, a shopping trolley, 5 footballs and various bits of plastic toys. Other members of the team were able to make a start on the cutting and raking of the meadow areas. We worked using both the autoscythe on the large flat areas and the hand scythes on the smaller areas and around the borders. This work benefits not only the appearance of the site but will allow the ground flora to develop in particular the meadow cranesbill and vetch which make a good display of colour in the summer.

Today there were 15 volunteers.

Click here to see other photos of the day.