Work is well underway in our exciting new woodland area at Howes Wood, and what a challenge it is proving to be!
A dedicated team of brilliant volunteers turned out a couple of weeks ago to begin the hard graft of making the space more accessible and more red squirrel-friendly.
Whilst we wait for the licence covering this section, we’re limited for now to working with dead and fallen trees, but there’s certainly no shortage of those!
The area is dense, tangled and frankly a little wild, which makes every hour of work here feel like a real achievement.
Steve gets to work with the brushcutter, clearing a swathe through the thick understorey.
The main focus this session was path-making, essential if we’re going to be able to manage and monitor this area properly. Steve was out with the brushcutter, tackling the dense ground vegetation, while Richard and Steve worked together deeper in the wood with the chainsaw, felling dead standing timber to begin opening up the canopy and clearing the way ahead.
Richard and Steve working in tandem with chainsaw and hands, to bring down dead timber and clear the emerging path route.
It’s slow, physical work. The fallen trees criss-cross the ground in every direction, making it genuinely difficult to move through, let alone establish a clear route. But progress is being made, one log at a time.
The new path begins to take shape amid the felled timber, satisfying evidence of a hard morning’s work.
Helen was on hand throughout to direct operations and lend a hand herself, and wasn’t shy about getting stuck in with the bramble cutting, which, in this corner of the wood, is a job that never quite feels finished.
Helen cuts back brambles alongside the new path, with freshly cleared ground visible stretching away behind her.
The conditions were, shall we say, atmospheric. With barely a breath of wind penetrating the canopy, the heat built up quickly and the air felt decidedly jungle-like by mid-morning. The gnats were absolutely merciless and every volunteer went home with more bites than they could count! Hats off to the whole team for powering through.
And look out for our upcoming posts, which will feature photos of the newly completed hide a lovely milestone for the project that we can’t wait to share with you!