Not much happening on the blog these days...

Dear All, we've (I've) been very slack for some time on updating the Friends of Henllys LNR Blog (not since June 2014). It is not like we've been  doing nothing, in fact Apr 2104 - Mar 2015 has been the busiest year on record for us notching up in excess of 1000 volunteer hours for the very first time since we started.

Much of what we've been up to has been put into short and sweet Tweets on Twitter via @HenllysLNR and this is where you'll find most of our activities.

In a nutshell, we've seen our wildflower trial blossom; pulled a load of Himalayan balsam again and again and again and again and again; did our second year of pond sampling where Henllys Church in Wales Primary School found newts for the first time and scientifically tested the quality of the water by sampling the water bugs (both ponds in great health with the top pond improving since last year); rebuilt an otter holt with 1st Henllys Scouts' cubs; made bird boxes with the 1st Henllys Scouts' beavers which were then being checked out early this spring while Brian and I made some willow fascines; we gained a retired-fireman as a volunteer (Brian, see previous picture link); Tricia's Grow Wild project went really well; had fun at the Henllys fete; saw that our hard work over the years have had an effect on reducing invasive Himalayan balsam; realised a scythe is brilliant for late-season Himalayan balsam; seeing areas of wildflowers coming back after tackling Himalayan balsam in areas of the LNR; got a bat detector and a scythe from a Keep Wales Tidy Grant; took part in Tidy Wales Week; dismayed that some Himalayan balsam was in flower in November; used the scythe to clear around the orchard; planted a WWI memorial common oak tree with Henllys Community Council; unblocked the culverts on the local nature reserve several times by hand; planted trees around the container;  did 47 wheelbarrow trips of 100 metres with stone to firm up a bottleneck just up from the LNR; made a slippery access path safe with grassmats thanks to a donation from Cwmbran Shopping Centre; widened the main footpath between Glan Rhyd and Birch Grove over 3 Fridays; added more grassmats to the top of the steps; saw the hard path continued creating a lovely walking loop paid for by Torfaen Council; did some tree crown lifting with Torfaen County Borough Council; improved another access point; got tadpoles again in both ponds; we've been shortlisted for a biodiversity award from Keep Wales Tidy and are applying for Community Green Flag status.

Apart from that nothing much to report on.

Some of the Tidy Towns Works

As many of you may know, TCBC was lucky enough to be awarded a Tidy Towns grant to improve Henllys Local Nature Reserve. We've drawn up a map detailing some of the larger activities from the grant that may be more obvious. Many of these are to increase access to the wider community, but more importantly have opened up much more of the LNR which has been inaccessible for many years. The most impressive is the Villager's orchard in the south eastern section of the LNR with a new easy access from Henllys Way and along a stone path (which should green over and just provide a nicer walking surface) and across a newly constructed bridge, gate and mobility access gate.


View Titdy Towns Improvements in a larger map

The whole southern section was very difficult to get through and was becoming a HImalayan balsam reserve due to protection from brambles. Following up behind the contractors tractor was TCBC's ranger, vols and ourselves clearing areas which were not accessible by tractor.

The Villagers' Orchard and other Tidy Towns treats

We've done some good work over the past year with Henllys Church in Wales School, Coed Eva Primary School and the 1st Henllys Scouts. We continued our work with local young people recently by planting up the Villager's Orchard. This was all part of the Welsh Government Tidy Towns funded grant which TCBC successfully applied for to support the voluntary conservation and educational work we have done here since 2008.

26 pupils and 4 adults from Henllys Church in Wales Primary School, 1 Henllys Community Councillor, and two local County Councillors,Torfaen Council Countryside Section and 2 volunteers, joined with 3 volunteers from Friends of Henllys LNR to plant the 30 trees.

The eventual fruit will be for the community, but the wide variety of flowers will provide a boost for pollinator species especially bees. Fruiting trees include, apple, plum, pear, cherries and damsons.

 The trees were pre-dug by a mini-digger to make it easier for us, but this turned out to make things more difficult as they had filled with water and were enormous, so we had to bail them out and then fill them back in. The children turned up, we gave them our Keep Wales Tidy funded gloves and after a quick demonstration they got stuck in. They had to backfill the hole, add compost and the magic powder, then fill up the hole to the level of the scion. Finally they added a coir tree mulch to give the trees the best chance of success. Great fun and muddiness was had by all.

Planting the Villagers' Orchard

Afterwards, tree guards were added and in the 2 following weeks, stakes were added with much appreciated guidance from TCBC Countryside Volunteer Mr. Adkins. 

Soggy roots, advice from Mr Adkins and getting the trees railed off.

Finally, some of the rails were pyrographed (another Tidy Towns-funded too that we requested) helping us to keep a better record of the planting plan. Later on we will get Year 6 to add their names to the rails and perhaps a sentence about why the trees are good for us and wildlife.

Pyrograph engraving the rails around the trees. Note the new path to help walking through the orchard (this will grow over in time)

Chris Partridge from Friends of Henllys LNR said "We were grateful to be a part of this large Tidy Towns funded project and today we have shown that with a bit of help we can make a great difference in our community with this great community event. Hopefully there'll be some fruit left for me, and in many years to come some of the children who took part today can tell their grandchildren that they planted this magnificent orchard"

 

Building Bridges

There's been much hoo hah's going on about the removal of the bridge from the LNR and its relocation by 5m away. Here's a statement from the Rights of Way Officer

"The Council recently replaced the footbridge that provided access to rear of Birch Grove. It was decided to remove the bridge after an inspection revealed that the handrails on the footbridge had become unsafe. The inspection also revealed that the original footbridge , which had been built without Council consent, in its original position was a potential hazard has it was constructed adjacent to a considerable fall into the concrete channel. The Council decided that it would construct the new bridge upstream from the existing bridge where the fall into the channel would be reduced."

ROW Officer and vols working on the bridge

Finishing touches and group picture (minus Brian) 

So thank you to TCBC and their volunteers (of which two are 87 and 93 years of age) for putting this in at TCBC's cost. Ward and Community Councillors came on site and also agreed to the positioning of the bridge.

The Friends of Henllys LNR recently helped to unbounce the bouncy bridge near to the noticeboards. Part of the problem was that the original bridge was made from very thick non-FSC timber, probably from a rain forest and was rotting in parts. The new FSC-timber was quite a bit thinner and even following improvements left a small trip hazard, which most people didn't even realise. Anyway, in these "have you had an accident which was not your fault?" rife days (going back to the previous bridge), Brian [TCBC Rights of Way] came back and today jacked up the bridge enough to remove these trip hazards (the first few passers by didn't even notice).

Ah, no trip hazard, cheers Brian.

Finally for aesthetics, I disk cut off all the previously exposed nails. This was done before the bridge was jacked up and you can see the 1.5 inch lip.

For the keen eyed reader

Oop Twmbarlwm they are having a Tidy Tump Day

Dear all, our friends up on Twmbarlwm are having a Tidy Tump day on Sat 25th January and welcome all volunteers to come along and join in. Details for this event are below:

You can visit their new website here: www.twmbarlwm.co.uk