Cleaner Coasts Week and what we can do to help.

Friends of Henllys Local Nature Reserve are joining in with Cleaner Coasts Week 2013 with a stream clean up on Sat 18th May at 10am. We are meeting on the reserve's car park, just off Birch Grove, NP44 6EP.

What do we have to do with the coast? Well, the water which passes through the Henllys Local Nature Reserve ends up in the sea, some 16 miles downstream from us after passing along the Nant y Milwr, Dowlais Brook, Afon Llwd and finally River Usk, passing by several CCW events which are taking place in Newport. So even though we are not on the coast itself, we are doing our bit to help clean up our coast. You are more than welcome to join in with us. Please let us know via friendsofhenllyslnr@gmail.com and just bring wellies and gloves. All other equipment will be provided.

The trail of litter from the streams that pass through Henllys LNR to sea water is shown in the map below, you may have to zoom out a bit.


View Cleaner Coasts Week Sat 18th May event in a larger map

Granny's store cupbard walk report and next event

Fiona pointing out some wildflowers

On a lovely day, 7 people were given a real insight to some of the local plants and trees that can be found on the Local Nature Reserve. This walk was led by the extremely knowledgeable Fiona Ford who gave up her own time to fascinate and educate us.

We learnt how the hawthorn tree is the totem of the old Celtic god Bran while elder leaves are a strong purgative. I'll be trying out Hawthorn flower tea to see if it helps me sleep and that evening I collected up some ground elder and braised it in a little water and some butter and pepper and it was so good, that I'll be collecting some more of it over the next couple of weeks.


Braised Ground elder with my dinner

As ground elder is considered a weed, I'll be doing my bit to control it, by eating it. No after effects today so all's good too.
Remember, you should never pick anything or eat anything if you are not entirely sure what it is.

Everyone really enjoyed it and we are very grateful for Fiona's kindness and knowledge. She indicated she'd like to come back again and do another one later in the year and we'd be more than happy if she did.

We'd like to thank Henllys Community Council, Asda, Morrisons, One Stop Shop and Wilkinsons for all agreeing to display our poster for this walk.

At the end of the walk, we had a little look at our trial wildflower meadow are and it is looking pretty good with plenty of germinations in both halves. Can't tell them apart yet.



Germinating wildflower seeds

NEXT EVENT: Sat 18th May

TIME: 10am

Stream clean up 2!! Please bring wellies and gardening gloves if you have them. All other equipment will be supplied.

Get in touch via friendsofhenllyslnr@gmail.com or 07824504813.

Granny's Store Cupboard Walk

Saturday 4th May at 10 am, meet Car Park off Birch Grove, NP44 6EP.

All welcome and free, but please let us know that you are planning on coming along.

Wildflower seed trial..for when the balsam goes

Today the 3 volunteers dug a small area up near the notice board on the LNR. This area is normally full of bramble and bracken. This is the exactly the same kind of habitat that dominates when we clear Himalayan balsam from an area.

bracken and bramble

In fact this was the very first site at which we pulled up balsam in the summer of 2008 (it is now balsam free). As a trial, we dug it out this morning and aim to sow a mixture of wildflower seeds straight onto this patch.

...an hour of so later

Half of the seeds have been stratified in sand at -20degC (in the freezer) for a few days while the other half stratified in the dark in the fridge. Around the margins, which will probably have bramble and bracken growing, we will sow some untreated seeds. We can look after this very small patch quite easily, checking for germination and weeds. We will also see if the seeds can compete in a relatively untreated area, i.e. bramble and bracken rhizome-rich soil. Roll on summer and Autumn to look at the results.

We also removed some old barbed wire, which could have been harmful to dogs and removed about 1/4 bag litter from this small site.

Barbed wire partially buried and removed

For more information contact Chris on friendsofhenllyslnr@gmail.com

We had a Wild Weekend for Wales!

Friends of Henllys LNR were one of 190 groups across Wales who were successful in applying for free Homebase vouchers as part of Keep Wales Tidy’s ‘Have a Wild Weekend for Wales’ campaign.

 

Funded by Welsh Government, CCW and Homebase, the aim of the weekend-long campaign was to encourage groups to create new wildlife habitats to improve local biodiversity by undertaking small practical projects to benefit native species.

 

Children from Henllys church in Wales School and Friends of Henllys LNR rolled up their sleeves, got back to nature and gave local wildlife a helping hand on Henllys Local Nature reserve by building habitat boxes for protected species of bat and dormice. We were successful in applying for a £ 100 Homebase voucher which we used to buy wood, nails, and screws.

Henllys Church in Wales Eco-Club making and camouflage painting the bat and dormouse boxes

The Friends spent a day making the kits from the wood and Chris then visited Henllys Church in Wales School over 4 Thursday afternoons with the after-school Eco Club. Here everyone helped to make either a bat or dormouse box using loads of different kinds of tools. To decrease vandalism, we camouflaged painted the boxes, which were then finished over 5 lunchtime sessions. Finally, we came out and met TCBC’s woodland and Education Ranger, Jon Howells, who with Chris and 19 children put up the boxes on Thursday 13^th December in -2ºC. We were all wrapped up nice and warm.

 

Henllys Church in Wales' Eco-Club with Chris from Friends of Henllys LNR and Jon Howells, TCBCs Woodlands and Education Officer putting up the boxes on the Local Nature Reserve

The children and everyone had a great time, we went back to school to warm up and prepared a press release to tell everyone about the great work we had done.

Sonny, aged 7, said, “I enjoyed the hammering and putting the wood together”.

Nicole, aged 8, added, “When we went to the Nature Reserve, it was a bit cold, but we had so much fun looking at our bat and dormouse boxes being put up and seeing the nature’s camouflage”.

Mrs. Sulway, After School Eco Club teacher said, “It was fantastic to see the club take on such a practical project.  All the children involved have been so full of excitement and have been looking forward to working with Chris each week.  The trip to the Nature Reserve allowed the children to see all their hard work put into practice”.

 

Chris Partridge from the Friends of Henllys LNR added, “We are a small group that have struggled with numbers for years.  We have quickly found a great way to bolster the work we can do on the reserve, while helping inspire the next generation.  It was immense fun and the boxes look amazing, we couldn’t have done it without the Wild Weekend Homebase vouchers”.

 

Each year Friends of Henllys LNR volunteers between 600-800 volunteer hours on our Local Nature Reserve. Most of these hours are spent pulling up balsam, although our winter management plan will start to increase this. These numbers of hours are staggering considering the small number of volunteers we have. Over this month, working with Henllys church in Wales after-school Eco-Club, we have worked 113 volunteer hours, but have inspired and educated so many local children, so much so that other children have asked to join the Eco-Club. The Eco-Club teacher asked if there is anything her infants can do, so we may do a bug hunt in the Summer in the tall grass. There'll be plenty of balsam waiting for the older children come the end of May-August 2013, subject to insurance of course.