Digging a drainage channel and finishing off the Bags of Help Project

Great event today under the guidance of Thom Board putting in the final pieces of the Tesco #BagsofHelp project with the gabions.

The original cause of the mass bank erosion was a small stream of water coming of the main meadow after heavy rainfall. The water came down along the path of least resistance creating a channel which came across the footpath making it a trip hazard in itself. Now the gabions are all in place, tackling this channel was the final piece of work.

Difficult to see in the pic so areas of concern are highlighted

With Thom and volunteers Richard, Stella, Phil and myself, we started by digging a channel deep enough so that any water would come down here instead of down the current channel. In our trench we then put a special drainage pipe donated by TCBC ranger Jon Howells and re-dug until it was deep enough and all flowed downstream. 

The last part involved taking stone from the left over gabion works and wheelbarrowing it along the muddy path to the top of the bank.

We then filled in the and old builders bag with 1-2 wheelbarrow loads and dragged it down the hill to the trench. We then backfilled all around and on top of the pipe with larger stones and capped it all off with smaller stones to dust.

Backfilling with larger limestone and capping with stone to dust.

Our digging at the higher end is quite a sharp drop and any water coming this way will quickly seep between the stones down to where the pipe is and it will wither go through or along the pipe and will drain out over the limestones behind the gabions.  

It was very rewarding work and with everyone's hard work we finished the job by early afternoon.

It was the final piece of work for our Tesco Bags of Help Grant and what a difference it has made.
More pictures can be viewed here: https://flic.kr/s/aHskRQnF5B.

Stepping down into the stream, it has a huge amount of silt and leaves in it from all this rain we have been having. This section was extremely stony and excellent habitat for many macroinvertebrates and potentially crayfish. One of our next jobs there will be to dig out this silt back to the stony stream bed. One celebration at a time.


winter sun

Spring Clean Cymru and a chance to celebrate (with a pizza afterward)

From time to time we support national clean up days such as Clean Coast Week, Be Tidy etc. We undertake periodic clean ups and often pick up as we find it on our way back from other events and activities. This Spring, we are taking part in Spring Clean Cymru and Spring Clean Torfaen. The former is a national campaign run by Keep Wales Tidy with the support of all Local Authorities while the latter is being promoted by Torfaen CBC and supported by KWT. As a community group we support both campaigns as they raise the importance of action from within communities. Moreover, it shows us that we are part of something much bigger and there are many more people in communities across Wales trying to do similar things.

Spring Clean Cymru

As such we are holding our Spring Clean Cymru/Torfaen event on Sunday 12th March from 10-12. We'll meet at the car park off Birch Grove and collect what we can.

We're part of something bigger

Doing litterpicks is one of our least pleasurable activities, but one we can't stop doing. As such, we've decided that immediately afterwards, we'll be having our first Big Lottery Fund Celebration where we'll be cooking pizzas in our new portable oven (expected arrival end of Feb) under our new branded gazebo for those who are taking part. Apart from the litter what is there not to like.

Artist's impression of what the pizzas will be like