27.11.11 Willow coppicing and Bank stabilisation

Six volunteers, including two new volunteers carried on the work start by a group from HSBC as a partner Keep Wales Tidy Event on the LNR. The two new vols, Becky and Ruth, are work colleagues and the latter came out on the LNR on that HSBC workday.

The plan for today was to coppice a few more willow stools, process all the material for either willow bundles or for living stakes. We improved upon the work from last time by making a simple frame for the bundles to be placed upon, which made it easier to pass the wire underneath the bundles.

Willow being dragged the hard way across to the processing area by Beau (watched closely by Mum).

Ruth cutting the willow to length.

Tricia wiring a bundle.

Staking a bundle into place.

Two bundles staked on top of each other to divert water around a downstream beech tree. The water was already being diverted away from the soft bank so this looks good.

Slideshow.

Cheers to TCBC Countryside Service for continued support, permission and for purchasing the wire for the fascines.

New Ponds and Bank Erosion

Many of you will have noticed that there are a couple of new additions to the local nature reserve in the form of new ponds. Both of these are found on the site at the end of Juniper Crescent and were created as part of the South East Wales Wetlands Project in partnership with Environment Agency Wales and Ponds Conservation. Hopefully, in time they will be naturalised with plantlife (an area heavilly populated by sedges, reeds and alder), by insect life and hopefully for newts and to support more bats.

The ponds appear to be filling quite nicely, but management of Himalayan balsam here may be a problem, so we will have to wait until next summer to find out.

Recently, we did a trial bank stabilisation event with HSBC using coppiced willow into bundles. The good news is that the willow bundles are still there. The problem is that the drain is already fully blocked up and the water back filling again. It seems that this is a big part of the erosion problem. Moreover, it seems that there is a stream leading down to the drain from the oppisite direction to the stream itself and this will eventually undermine the concrete drain itself. We also found an area part the way along the the stream where the bank is being seriously eroded across the path and this is creating a really dangerous crevice. There are several pictures in the following slideshow showing all of these problems.



I met up with Jon the Woodland Ranger back in work after his sabbatical and we talked about some of these issues and we hope to come up with a proactive and reactive plan.

Don't forget the next event is this Sunday (27th Nov) at 10am meeting at the Car Park off Birch Grove performing more bankstabilisation and coppicing.

Willow Coppicing and HSBC saving the banks

Sunday saw 9 volunteers from HSBC in Newport helped to coppice a small area of willow in a corner of the reserve as part of a rescue package for the stream banks.

Firstly, they were given a short health and safety talk followed by tool care and handling. We then walked through the reserve giving the vols a brief description of the Local Nature Reserve's history, habitats, wildlife and conservation issues. One such issue involved the banks of the drains being eroded to such an extent that the most mature trees on the reserve were threatened by bank collapse. One incident has already happened where a large sycamore fell across the stream where its roots where soil around some of its roots were washed away. This was recently cut up by TCBC's Woodland Ranger and vols. However, there are several trees including some magnificent beech trees which are also under threat. The idea for today’s work was to perform some bank stabilisation by making willow bundles which are staked into the bank with living willow, which would hopefully root and decrease future erosion.

The coppicing involved cutting the willow, in clumps called a stool, as close to the ground as possible with saws.

The wood was then taken to the processing area where it was cleaned and cut to length for the fascines, really curly wood was left in a pile for later. Bundles of willow of about 6 foot length were tied using wire into long sausages called fascines.

Meanwhile some willow stakes were made from thicker pieces of cut willow that were not so useful for the fascines. The wood was cut to a spike at one end using billhooks. Nearby, a small group litterpicked the area where we were working and we collected 3 bags of rubbish (throughout the day). We then looked at the drain which was completely blocked with silt (much of this from the eroding bank) although we could hear a trickle somewhere. Dave mainly set to this with a Chillington hoe and some muscle.

We took some nearby logs to make a retaining wall for some of this collected silt and staked these into place. Right next to the drain on the hill, we dug a small hole which formed the base of the amphibian hibernaculum.

Once finished all the useless brash was piled in here and this was filled over with the dug up earth.

Finally, we made 3-fascines altogether and three of us slopped our way across the silty stream and staked the willow fascines into place.

For all of this we used material from just 5 willow stools covering a very small area.

Everyone had a great time and we look forward to the next one. which is pencilled on for Sunday 27th November 2011 at 10.30 am.

What's your favourite plant? - Himalayan balsam

Well, it hammered it down last night and I had a dirty pair of waterproofs, so I reckoned on heading down to the LNR to kill 2-birds with one stone. To my astonishment, both Tricia, Maria and Beau came out to pull up more of our favourite plant, Himalayan balsam.

Speaking of favourites, it is difficult to pull ballsam so much of the time, so we were pleased to be distracted by Beau with her "What's your favourite..." game. So all in all, we pulled a massive area again in 2 hours and learnt alot about each other including T-rex, Bread and The Young Ones.

Beau early on found a giant himalayan balsam at well over 2 meters, but right towards the end Tricia found one which stood over 3 meters tall; what an amazingly adaptable plant. My best find of the day was a milk crate and a football post.

Searching though 2,495 moths on the UK Moths website to find one of the moths we caught on the weekends bug hunt(I started at 1 and eventually found it at number 2,441 [silver y]) has spurned us on to borrow the moth trap on a Friday night in early August to sit down to see what we can catch. This was less enthusiastically approved until food and drink was mentioned. So as soon as we have a date for that it will be on the blog.

Silver y moth (Autographa gamma)

We'll be out next on Thursday evening from 6 pm just passed the burnt oak tree, whatever the weather and it looks like we are approaching the time to bring out the long-handled hooks as very many are in flower now.

03.07.11 Henllys LNR Bug Hunt

Friends of Henllys LNR held a bug hunt to make a start on an audit of the biodiversity on the Local Nature Reserve.

On this perfect sunny day, ten of us grabbed bug hunt nets and viewing containers (kindly loaned to us from TCBC Countryside Section and Greenmeadow Community Farm) and sweep netted the meadow searching to see what invertebrates we may find. All the volunteers went out sweeping while Chris sat at his camping table waiting for all the nets to return so we could photograph what we found. Transfering the catch into the observation container was trickier than we imagined, as was photographing them afterwards.

We were all amazingly suprised with the massive numbers of bugs that we did catch. You do often notice butterflies, bees and other large insects, but the variety in sizes and colours of bugs that we sampled impressed us all. It shows how valuable the meadow is for nature as well as for us.

Dazzlers on the day included the striking 6-spot burnet moth (Top left), a green irredescent mint leaf beetle (Top right), a bright yellow crab spider (Bottom left) and the dark bush cricket with its almost fluorescent green/yellow underside (bottom right).

The bug hunt, albeit great fun and informative as it was, gave us excellent relief from pulling himilayan balsam. However, it also showed us what we are here to protect and enhance. The large amount of seed collected in the nets reminded us that the meadow will be cut in a few weeks time and we will be looking for loads of help in September to rake it off to help further enhance the LNR. With all conservation management, if you get the building blocks of the plants right then everything else should fall into place.



Friends of Henllys LNR is free to join, everyone is welcome and for more information call Chris Partridge on 07717 412 270.

30.06.11 Balsam pulling & Sunday's Bug Hunt Event

As a group we have been pulling balsam up for weeks on the LNR. The determination to get the job done is brilliant, dog walkers are pulling it up here and there and tonight we had a record 8 people out altogether (although 1 was more a spectator as sandals were worn by accident; maybe next time!!). Steve was off pulling again with his dog and we had a chat about covering balsam areas to ecrease spread. By 7 pm Tricia and I continued the pulling work undertaken yesterday by Maria, Beau and myself, which in turn continued from Tricia's work on Tuesday of this week. Shortly afterwards, Kim and Brandon were came along with Brndon's brother Conner and a set of grandparents. They all joined in with aplomb and the swollen ranks cleared a huge area which was a great soul-lifter for us.

We also took a photo of another moth which we will try and look up ASAP. NOTE:- It is probably a Common Emerald (Hemithea aestivaria)

Leading on from which is a reminder that this Sunday is a bug Hunt at 11 am meeting in the Car Park. The aim of this is to start recording some of the species that we have in the mosaic of habitats on the LNR. So we have plenty of nets and I'll have my camera with macro lens to take as many photos as possible of the things we can find.

21.06.11 More Balsam Pulled...Great Strides Made

Tonight we had Steve, who was out walking his dog, Kay and Isobel (who were out walking their dog) and myself pulling up more balsam. Isobel then ran home and grabbed her brother Brandon who only wanted to come out on Thursday for the planned event. Unfortunately, I have to geve a talk in Cardiff on Thursday so we went out today instead.

We started off further up towards the noticeboard today for the first hour.

From Jun 21, 2011 balsam

Following this, we went over to the burnt oak. This was a mass of balsam last year, and was also a mass this year, except around the oak itself. This must have been the edge of the spread last year and we pulled it before seeds were set. However, the area behind the oak was a mass of balsam, intermixes with bracken and bramble. We set on to this with aplomb. Moreover, we were very please to release the crab apple tree, the ash tree and the field maple from the balsam. The other trees in the area which Patricia and I cleared of brambles last year look much healthier this year too.
No organised event this Thursday, but feel free to pick up balsam as you go, or when you stop for a chat with other dog walkers.

19.11.11 Pulling on Saturday Morning and Sunday Afternoon

We pulled again on Saturday morning

From Jun 19, 2011 Panoramic Saturday

and again on Sunday afternoon.

From Jun 19, 2011 Panoramic Saturday

The balsam is budding up now, so time is very short, we will be going out almost every night now with a main meet on Monday and Tuesday @6pm. If you are out walking about, feel free to pulls some up, but don't forget to bend it in half and give it a twist or it may regrow.
Here are some quick movies from before and after on Sunday:
Meadow Before

Meadow After

Jungle Before

Jungle After

New Himalayan Balsam Champions

This blog is intended to be just about Henllys LNR. However, today in Cardiff with my Cardiff Friday Morning Project Group, our numbers were bolstered with a class of children from Holy Family RC School from Fairwater. In two hours we collected a pile of balsam that beats all others so far. The gauntlet is down and I reckon we need to do something about it. So, next Thursday, 6pm meeting at the car park, let's try to beat them.

From Jun 17, 2011 Cardiff Friday Morning Project Balsam Champions

16.06.11 More balsam pulling and more balsam pullers

Maria, Beau and I started off pulling balsam down to the left from the new notice board and as we pulled, several people who already pulled some balsam joined in with our work. We finished off the area we started 2 weeks ago and then moved down into the patch opposite where the balsam had started to encroach onto the grassland.

This was found in the grass near to the balsam - any ideas? UPDATE: We now think it is a small magpie moth Eurrhypara hortulata

Cheers to the newcomers Kim, Isabel and Brandon and to the fellow whose name I didn't catch, but who kindly informed me of the typo on the new Torfaen Greenweb site.

The first balsam was spotted in flower today, so all hands to the pump. You know what to do, pull it up, twist the stems and leave in a big pile like these. We'll be back out as a group next Thursday meeting 6 pm in the car park, but there is plenty more to do so keep on pulling!!

Oh. many of the pictures below were taking by budding photographer Beau:

Wild Weekend for Wales Grant and what we will do with it

The group recently were awarded a small Wild Weekend for Wales Grant from Keep Wales Tidy and B&Q. The grant enables us to perform several small but hopefully significant biodiversity actions on the LNR.

The first part is for materials to make habitat boxes for various animals including bat, small bird, dormice and an owl box. We know there are bats here already and an owl has been heard, but it is not known if the European Protected Species dormouse is present here. The boxes will allow us to monitor them for their presense. We will inspect the boxes twice a year, and as they are so protected, once we find evidence we can no longer touch them (a handling licence is required). If we do find them, this will affect the management of the woodland sections of the LNR.

The second part is to be able to sow small areas of native wildflower seeds in places of the LNR that have been ravaged by Himalayan balsam. These will be in areas away from the main meadow. One of the plans for this year is to cut the meadow after the flowers and grasses have finished flowering, but then rake it all off after first allowing the seeds to naturally drop back to the soil. we will also drag some of the freshly cut plants to bare areas to re-establish areas previously lost to Himalayan balsam.

09.06.11 Wild Weekend for Wales Bird and Dormouse boxes

We met up again for our second event in a week with our usual Thursday evening activity. This week the four of us made three bird boxes and two dormouse boxes. The latter are extremely tricky to make due to 1mm panel pins compared to the massive clout nails that we used on the bird boxes. The panel pins have a great tendency to bend just as you think you have it perfectly in position.

After we finished making the dormouse boxes we talked a bit about dormouse habitat and then placed the two boxes amongst some hazel trees on the LNR. We then camouflaged them with bracken.

Finally we couldn’t resist pulling up more Himalayan balsam.



Same time, 6pm in Henllys LNR Car Park for more balsam bashing (the buds are starting to appear so time is short).

Wild Weekend for Wales Bat boxes on Henllys LNR

Three of us braved this wet Sunday morning to make 3 bat boxes to go up on a tree on the LNR. It was great fun working out how the pieces go together and we then nailed the boxes so the bats will be safe and protected from wind and rain. The wood was preservative free as some preservatives can be harmful to bats which are a protected species.

We will be returning to the LNR car park on Thursday at 6pm to make some more boxes to go up around the LNR.

Here are some pictures from today:

New blog for Friends of Henllys LNR

After setting up my own blog for my Keep Wales Tidy work in Cardiff, I decided to set up one for the  the work we do as volunteers on Henllys LNR.
The major work last year was the first serious tackle of himalayn balsam. In 2009, I tested a trial plot of pulling up the balsam, which took me 4 hours. In 2010, this only took me 30 mins. In 2010, several volunteers joint together, or as individuals helped to pull up large areas of balsam.

The results of this are quite interesting. The areas in which we pulled regularly had very little regrowth this year, but the sites where balsam had been chemically sprayed or strimmed, had plenty of regrowth. There are loads of factors which could have affected this, but arguably we can control the spready of balsam if people just pull up a bit when they are walking their dogs, or stopping for a chat. You can't really confuse it with anything else on the LNR, but the following steps are important:

1. Pull the plant out completely, if the stem snaps it regrows with more flower heads than before and it can make things worse.

2. bend over the stems and twist them to damage the fibres. This helps to stop the plant from re-rooting.

3. Place the pulled balsam in large piles. This helps the rest of the ground to recover and decreases the area of nutrient enrichment.

Here's a slideshow of some shots I took today (pressing the speech box icon in the bottom left corner of the slideshow gives small comments on each photo):

Wild Weekend for Wales Event

First event of the year on the LNR.

Date: Sun 5th June

Meeting: Henllys Car Park just off Birch Grove.

Time: 11 am

Activity: we will be constructing bird, bat and dormouse boxes followed by their placement within the Local Nature Reserve.