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In yesterdays posting I told you of a community group that were looking to take on a derelict piece of land. Following a successful meeting with their local authority they have been provided a lease for the land and will be creating thirty allotments, although they have followed my advice and will now make them all half size plots, so sixty allotments, as well as cleaning up the rest to provide a wildlife haven.
Well over the weekend they were there clearing the rubbish and cutting back the undergrowth. While there were twenty odd that were part of the original group that started on Saturday, by the end of the Sunday they had over sixty people working as volunteers there. They got far more done than they ever expected. All the Allotment plots are now marked out, as are the main path ways.
They have a pile of rubbish to remove though, they tell me its about three skips full. It could have been more but they have kept the different types of items separate and what can be recycled will be. Further, they found items like copper pipe dumped there, and this they have already sold to provide funds for the project.
However, the best news was that they found a fox with cubs in part of the area that will be kept for wildlife, as well as an adder colony. The snakes did cause the only disagreement of the weekend, as one or two of the volunteers wanted to get rid of them, but fortunately sense prevailed and they will be carrying out work to improve the habitat for them. It is unfortunately one of the problems of community projects that different people will not always see the value of the wildlife. Fortunately as they are protected even those that are a feared of snakes will have to lean to coexist.
At this point, I have to say that this I was informed of last night in a phone call, then just as I was writing this (I know that this is really just typing and not writing), got another call. Even more good news. Firstly one of the volunteers who turned out is also one of the parent governors of one of the local schools, and the school would like to get involved in the project. However the best news was that another volunteer has connections with the owners of the adjacent land. They are going to allow the community garden to run a water connection from a metered tap so that they will have access to water. This only came about because there had been a discussion about if they could or should burn some of the rubbish. As one of the conditions for the use of this land from their council is no fires because of the lack of access to water this volunteer offered to ask the owner of the land about access to the wet stuff. They got an immediate yes.
There are other items that may be donated too. There may be some scrap wood for a couple of sheds, and even more interesting someone knows of or has, I was not totally clear on that, a large greenhouse that if it can be dismantled and taken away the project can have. I know that a great deal of work over the past three years has gone into the preparation for this day, but even the people involved have been amazed by the strength of community that has made this happen. But for me the best aspect of all was that one of the women I was helping last week and had been in tears of despair over the whole project, was now genuinely overjoyed at the colourful display of Wellington boots that turned up. What's more they have voted me to be the official Scarecrow, at last a real role for me!
One of the aspects that people don’t realise is that voluntary conservation work is really fun. Let me explain, on Thursday I was out with the Countryside Wardens working on a wildlife pond. Ponds, or any healthy body of water are vital for all wildlife. However, most small ponds need to be managed carefully for them to be successful habitats.
In the past Most villages had their own ponds, these were mainly man made but were not dug as ponds but resulted from pits being dug to extract the clay to make the bricks to build the cottages that created these villages. However unlike much of the industrial scale work, these were dug by hand. Further they were managed as an important resource for the community. They provided drinking water for horses, the main source of power and transport. They provided food, as ducks would often colonise them. But more importantly, they enabled reeds and sedges to be grown and these were vital as roofing material. It was not until the coming of the railways that slate, from Wales, became more widely used, thus most cottages were thatched.
It was this annual harvesting of the reeds and sedges that prevented the village pond from silting up and drying up. Thus without that type of traditional harvesting modern wildlife ponds have to be managed to keep them from just becoming areas of boggy mud. That was the task in question, cutting back the vegetation and removing it from the water.
Now anything to do with water can be fun anyway, but get a crazy bunch of volunteers together, and we must be crazy to be doing it in the first place, and it’s a wonder that we get anything done because we are laughing all the while.
There was one chap who was keen to use the waders, simply because he had never used them before. We all joked about rubber fetishes. I bet you never guessed that conservationists were so kinky. Also, no matter how careful you are we all get wet and muddy doing a task like this.
But there is real excitement as while we are working, we get to see the wildlife in the pond; Smooth Newt, Great Diving Beatles, Frogs, Toads, and we are all like children rushing to see these creatures. There is also the delight of the wonderful smell of Water Mint as we are working too.
While it is hard work, the satisfaction and fun is amazing.
Yesterday was the rescheduled task of painting the Coal Tubs on the Tub way. I was feeling quite tired even when I got up, but as I was leading it, I of all people couldn’t afford not to turn up. Therefore I had to fuel myself up on portage, make my sandwiches and a flask of tea. The Tea and my telephone I left on the kitchen bench, so that was a good start. Personally I blame to post woman calling at that point causing me to forget to put them in my bag. Well I have to blame someone, it cant be the Mouse’s fault, or can it?
It was a great day weather wise, so walking to the Forest classroom, the meeting place for the volunteers, was a real delight. Had I just been out for a walk it would have been a perfect morning to just stroll around, but those tubs needed to be painted.
The difficulty for an organisation that relies upon volunteers to carry out any works or task it that you never know how many people will turn up. It became clear that I was it. The Friends’ are blessed with having some very good and reliable people who do give of their time so freely, but most of the regular volunteers yesterday were away on holiday, Mick enjoy your time in Malta, we have work for you when you return. Also as this was a rescheduled event, rain having prevented play previously, it was just possible that folks had other things planned. So it was left to the Mouse to paint these tubs. As an extra safety precaution I informed the Ranger, who was on her Day off, that I was working alone.
Now I don’t mind painting, but it can be boring, so I decided I would just do as much as I could manage. And I would work systematically, and used a wire brush to key the surface, as the plan was to do the work to as higher standard as possible, so that the minimum of future maintenance was needed in the future. Painting the wheels first, I wanted to ensure that all the fuddle bits were done and then I could take time with the large flat surfaces.
The work progressed well, and I even had time to stop for my lunch, and dreamt of my flask of tea I knew was at home. I even had visitors in the form of various dog walkers and a group of walkers. Even the Ranger came along to check on me, I think she was just making sure I was actually working and had not skived off.
Eventually, I just ran out of paint, with just a little bit of the coal to paint. Well its rock made to imitate coal, if we had used coal it would have lead to the brainless ones either stealing it or setting it on fire.
So with just the sign writing and a bit of coal left to paint I was happy but amazed that I had done so much. While I had been careful, I still got my hands covered in paint, well at least I wont go rusty now, I had the problem that I had to return the tools and ensure I informed the ranger I was finished. What made that a problem was I was really knackered and my home was in one direction and the Forest Depot was in the other.
At least I was able to check on the work as I went home eventually. The wet paint sign was still there, but it was gone by today. It is one of these things that amuse me. The tubs are in an area that is closed off to the public, with a viewing area at the top of the cutting. But to ensure we don’t get sued, we have to put up signs to warn the brain dead ones that the paint is wet. Just in case “Little Johnny” traverses into a place he shouldn’t be, and gets paint on his best designer shirt, and “Little Johnny’s” mother sues us as this hypothetical shirt is ruined. Personally I think that in these sorts of cases the people being sued should counter claim the cost of repainting because “Little Johnny” has ruined it. That would stop this sue for everything culture.
Well as you can see the Tubs are all shinny and black again. But someone else can finish them off!
Today was an important milestone for me as this mouse was leading a task for the friends (Friends of Chopwell Wood) for the first time. While I have experience of leading conservation tasks in my past, getting lumbered with this was almost an accident.
During a previous meeting it was decided that we, the Friends’, needed to do some work on repairing the coal tubs that we have on display in the woods, as they had suffered from vandalism and the local kids had empted them out several times in the past. The last indignity had been that a stolen car had been pushed or driven into the cutting where the tubs sit before being torched. Therefore we, as an organisation, needed to do something that would stop this looking like an eyesore. Also, we needed to plan the work so that hopefully we could prevent the vandalism occurring again, or at least minimise any effect.
So like a complete berk this mouse piped up and said he would look at the site and access the work that needed to be done. Thus myself, and two of the other friends were assigned this duty. Having worked out what work we needed to do, a written plan of works was drawn up. However, because of the Forestry Commission rules that the FoCW have to abide by, suddenly one of us needed to stick our neck out and not only take charge of the task, but ensure that all the risk assessments were completed so that the work could go ahead. At that point I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and instead of scuttling away to a dark corner, I became task leader.
Now, today was the first day of this two-day task and it has gone well so far, I don’t think that I have misplaced any volunteers, nor have we injured any. More importantly the work has progressed at a cracking pace and we reached a point where over half of the task is done.
There was a moment when due to finding a nest of Wood mice Apodemus sylvaticus in one of the tubs we had to stop work to relocate them, but even this has not caused any real delay. The most amazing part though was the effort made by the volunteers that means that we probably will get the work completed, something I was having my doubts about only yesterday. That success today was in no small part due to two new volunteers. The Friends of Chopwell Wood have always been open to everyone, and recently one of volunteers has been learning British Sign Language, and is regularly available to provide translation support. Thus we have acquired two willing volunteers from the deaf community, who if today’s efforts are anything to go by, are hard working and capable. Here in the Friends’ we are not prejudice and welcome everyone, especially when they work like Trojans. But more importantly they enjoyed themselves, and that for me is what all this is and should be about.
The picture at the top is what the tubs looked like a week ago.
Today has been a rather interesting day for me as I am to become a local countryside ranger. As the readers of my previous Blog will know, but my new reader will not, I am actively involved with trying to do my bit to help look after the local environment and the countryside I love. Further rather than just complain about this or that not being done, I get involved with taking practical measures to keep the natural environment a great place for the flora and fauna as well as for the people who I share it with.
This lead me to apply to become a local countryside warden/ranger, the titles are interchangeable as the only real qualification is to be foolish enough to want to get stuck in to doing the messy work. However, for this I have had to undergo a CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) check. Now I have nothing to hide nor anything to fear, as this purely about child protection. The only difficulty is trying to get all the dates right of when I lived at different addresses. As my life has been somewhat peripatetic get those details right can be difficult. For people that stay in the same place all their lives, it is no problem, for me it is. I don’t always have the best memory for dates and an anniversary as it is (Is that why I am Divorced?) therefore trying to remember that sort of detail is difficult to say the least. But with that done I can at least start doing more practical conservation undertakings.
Then quite by chance I got on the bus to go home and found my neighbours on there too. I have not that long moved to my present address and I am lucky to have some good, no great, neighbours. They are an elderly couple, and while on the bus from talking I discovered that we shared an interest in wildlife and the countryside. Further they now understand why I have been seen wandering about in the early mornings or late at night looking like an extra from Springwatch!
This is not the only bit of practical conservation work that I am involved in either, as this weekend, there is a task that I am leading for another organisation called the “Friends of Chopwell Wood” (FoCW). It will be the first one that I have lead for this organisation, but I have lead tasks before when I volunteered with the BTCV (British Trust for Conservation Volunteers) in London. However, this will be a whole different ball game as with the FoCW we only have a small core group of volunteers to carry out the practical work, and we never know if any of member of the public will turn up to help. Incidentally if anyone reading this wants to help you are welcome to come along to Chopwell wood we meet at the forest classroom at 10 am. (Blatant Plug over)
However my activities today has prevented me from getting out and taking one of my regular wildlife walks. I am lucky as I do live in a wildlife rich environment, and while there is no guarantee that I will see wildlife, I must say that I normally do see something worth commentating on. It was this fact that initially prompted me to start keeping an on line journal in the first place.
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