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Details about our conservation work
Please contact the office if you are interested in volunteering and we will discuss details.
Task Reports
Conservation Work - Past
Bowling Park Community Orchard
in the allotments on Bowling Pk Drive
Please arrive at CF by 9.30am
We are continuing to tackle the infrastructure improvements at the orchard, with the aim of installing the new benches, paths and shelter tables and ‘floor’ before Apple Day. There will also be hedge cutting, grass cutting and harvesting.
Northcliffe Woods
entrance on Northclilffe Avenue
A wet and muddy day. We had scheduled this pond day for today hoping for a repeat of last year’s September visit when it was dry enough to dig without getting wet. But it’s been raining recently! Even with waders it was hard to stay dry but volunteers went beyond the call of duty in our attempts to dig out silt and leaf litter in order to maintain some areas of open water.
We emptied the silt traps again, both had filled about half way since we emptied them in July.
The midges were an unpleasant accompaniment to our work but we did see an attractive Pink-barred Sallow moth.
Bowling Park Community Orchard
in the allotments on Bowling Park Drive
We made a start in levelling the ground under the shelter today. The job itself wasn’t too hard, but we were using up left over stoney soil from the carpark so getting the bags there was pretty gruelling. We also made a start adding some more support to the shelter to extend it’s life.
There were also apples to pick, onions to dig and general planning and measuring to do.
Baildon Moor, bracken control
Our final visit for this year. We are getting tantalisingly close to some edges of the blocks have bracken that we have been cutting for all these years.
Again we were using hand tools and made a good impact with the scythes on the higher slopes and the sickles and slashers in areas where the bracken is less dense.
There were partridges around, plus grouse clucking, a Broom moth caterpillar (which eats bracken – we will leave plenty for it and it’s friends) and the cowberry was in flower as well as fruiting.
Baildon Moor, bracken control
julia
Fri, 11th Aug 2017, 11:12pm
Another hand-powered effort at controlling areas of bracken growth. We worked along the lower slopes, using the scythes and slashers in the denser stands and sickles were the bracken is sparser amongst the other moorland vegetation. The piles of fronds mark our progress across the hillside and it was good to see where we worked last month that there was only a little regrowth.
It’s hard work, so it was good to be distracted at times by frogs, a toad, red admiral butterflies and swifts. No sign of the grouse; they have taken cover.
Bowling Park Community orchard
in the allotments on Bowling Pk Drive
Two successful days during which we re-roofed the big shelter in the event space, and removed and replaced the roof over the shed. The roofing on the big shelter was fairly straight forward (challenging but manageable), working systematically along the roof nailing the corrugated bitumen sheets to the roof frame. I’d miscalculated the number of nails needed so it was all but finished by the time we left on Thursday, with the last few fixings put in on Friday morning. To strengthen the frame of the shelter we have added some extra vertical supports, and will add more when we are next there.
The roof that covers the small shed had bowed significantly with pools of water collecting where it slumped. So before securing the new sheeting we added some extra joists to support the roof, but we will need to make sure we brush fallen leaves off the top at regular intervals.
We also made a good start with cutting the hedges. And we picked the first ripe Beauty of Bath apples.
Bowling Park Community Orchard
in the allotments on Bowling Park Drive, BD4
We made a great start today with some of the infrastructure improvements that we are undertaking over the next few months. We removed the perished roofing of the large shelter and aim to replace it next week, working on Thursday and Friday.
The main sections of compost bins will be moved to make way for the shed to be built, and a great start was made in clearing these and establishing areas for the bins to be relocated.
The scythes were useful for cutting the taller vegetation including areas of nettles, ground elder and hogweed. Our mower has been stolen so we it was less easy to shorten the edges of the main path and the paths through the long grass.
We were pleased to see quite a few small frogs plus a number of moths, butterflies and a patrolling Brown Hawker dragonfly.
Baildon Moor, bracken control
julia
Fri, 21st Jul 2017, 11:12pm
.preview.jpg "21 July 2017: Knot Grass Moth caterpillar")
Knot Grass Moth caterpillarA day of weather today, wet most of the morning but getting better in the afternoon.
We were restricted to hand tools today, but despite the lack of an auto-scythe we made a significant impact on the larger stands of dense bracken. The heaps of cutting marked our progress.
Our day was brightened by an Elephant Hawkmoth and an attractive caterpillar Knot Grass Moth caterpillar. We had a walk to look at the area we originally worked in and are still pleased with the success in reducing the bracken and allowing the colonisation of heather, bilberry and crowberry. The trees are a notable part of the hillside and we are thinking that it might be a good for the heather to reduce the number slightly.