Friends of Henllys LNR: 2020

The car park off Birch Grove which is the principal entrance for Henllys Local Nature Reserve has undergone significant biodiversity improvements thank to our Group's efforts over the years. This started with the Natural Buzz Project:

The uphill side of the car park hasn't had much improvement done to it, but has other issues. There are several shortcuts (desirelines) which have been used over the years to get down from the field into the car park. As we know, where people tread on a slope, it is only a matter of time until rainfall and the follows. This has happened several times over the years and especially during heavy downpours, the soil is stripped and washes down the bank into the car park and the silt is deposited along our watercourses and inevitably blocks the drains and floods the car park. This leaves a green slippery and smelly mess behind. The council eventually unblocks these drains, but it is a really low priority drain. What we needed was a SuDS project to address that.

Luckily, Keep Wales Tidy announced a project in 2020 called Local Places for Nature, funded by Welsh Government (like our Natural Buzz project). This has small Starter Packages and larger Development Packages (https://www.keepwalestidy.cymru/pages/category/nature Grants still available July and Aug 2020). Each are divided into 3 parts with one of the larger packages, a SuDS project (https://www.keepwalestidy.cymru/nature-development-suds). We quickly applied and were successful in the first round of applications. We obviously needed a plan and permission from TCBC.

We posted all of this information on our Facebook page and created a video to explain it all:

As I write this, have also completed the first part of this project, which is the retaining oak sleeper wall, which will act to collect all of the runoff from the slope.

Brian and I worked on a Friday to built a proof of principal start to the wall using oak sleepers we had from another project. We also prepared all of the rest of the ground for the main delivery which was planned for a fortnight later. However, we had a call the following Wednesday from Travis Perkins saying all of the materials were on site at 8.30 am and were waiting for us. Well I had to pack up work for the day and worked from 8.30 am to 8.15pm to make the whole site was secure.Brian and I did this with help from my neighbour Yvette (early morning shift) and my wife Sally (late shift). All of this was done with 2 m social distancing in mind and only people from 2 households at any one time. With 2 more people we would have finished this hours earlier, but that's a pandemic for you. Ideally, we'd have built the whole wall first and then got the bags of soil delivered later where we'd have just cut the bags allowing the soil to fall where we needed it. As it happens we just had to cut the bags and do more shovelling instead. This is still much better than wheelbarrowing it.

Anyway, I created this follow up video to help any other Groups who are doing this kind of work. One of the big problems is that many of the sleepers were not very good quality and were very warped. This also slowed us down a lot. Hopefully this video will help others:

The next stage will be installing the 2 x SuDS planters which will be very interesting as they weigh 130 kg each. Again, what we learn will help the other 21 projects. We'll be doing this in the 1st week of August and then we'll lay the wildflower turf in October time if it is cool enough.

March 2020

Due to the CoVID-19 outbreak, several projects planned for Henllys LNR this spring and summer have had to be abandoned or postponed. However, the Henllys COVID-19 support Group gave me a chance to think about what we could do together even though we are all at home apart from each other. from From this, the Henllys LNR Home Wildflower project was born. So far 45 different families across the area have come together to take part in transforming part of their gardens into native wildflower havens.

Map showing rough distribution of Households taking part

https://drive.google.com/open?id=19ihKs7BVbuyiE4zAyMeYB9QUi39qla52&usp=sharingI created a downloadable introductory document which helps local residents to understand what we are trying to do and contains all the recording sheets and guidance on what photos to take.

With help from Sammy Gawler, a local teacher, we have created a wildflower detectives series of activities to entertain and educate children at home. This work will also provide data which will be analysed by local children.

Finally, I created a "how to" document, which details how residents sow their native wildflower seeds. I also created a short practical demonstration on the principles of transforming areas of lawn into a wildflower meadow.

Links to downloads:
1. Introduction.
2. Wildflower Seed Detectives
3. How to prepare grounds and sow wildflower seeds
4. YouTube video of a practical demonstration of wildflower seed sowing