11.03.12 Five events in one, great morning

Friends of Hennlys LNR were bolstered today by several new faces. Amy, Nikki and four from the newly formed Cardiff volunteer group Cardiff Trails Scrubs. It was the single biggest event we have hosted in one session so great news for us.

We started off from previous events on the reserve by performing a litterpick and the 11 volunteers quickly collected 10 bags of litter (event 1).

Rhett and Ollie from Cardiff Trail Scrubs picked up the large rakes and cleared out the drain which appears to be a major cause of localised LNR flooding and erosion.

The water was flowing beautifully afterwards (event 2).

The reserve is crossed by power lines and under these lines, trees will never reach maturity. Also, some of the trees were far too close together and were earmarked for thinning by Jon, the countryside ranger. Many of us were familiar with coppicing, but this time, it was tree felling and we went through safe tree felling and tool use. We split into two groups and felled a few trees (event 3).

Following on from this, we cut the trees into lengths to make the external and internal walls for the otter holt (event 4).

The final part of the day was to install some of the willow fascines which I made when performing some work at Cathays Community Centre. I donned the waders and slopped through smelly, bubbling sedimented mud and added the 3-bundles to the wall of willow. I added some new living stakes to stabilise these in place (event 5).

Slideshow of all the photos.

There are plans to finish off the holt, and details will follow.

On another note, some laminated sheets concerning a consulation for dogs on green spaces have been placed around entrances to the LNR. The consulation isn't proposing a ban for dogs on the LNR, but on playing fields and school grounds. However, it does mention enforcement of dog fouling on the LNR and other public access areas. There are many dog walkers who use the LNR and we plea that dog owners do clear up after their dogs. Dog poo bags can be taken home or placed in local authority bins.