Wow, what an autumn. Not just because of the splendid colours, but the way the Group has performed. Absolutely hammering it with excellent numbers of volunteers out on task, tasks finished ahead of schedule, new faces, new tools and all rounded off with a cracking Christmas celebration in the woods!
Nutfield Marsh kicked us off with the way things were to go, clearing the dead drowned scrub between the Moors and Watercolour Lagoons. What was planned as three tasks (or possibly longer) we did literally in a task and a half, including the annual corporate day for our good friends at Black & Veatch, the water engineering Company with offices in Redhill.
Then over at Kitchen Copse, the second year of restoring the coppice cycle to this beautiful Ancient Woodland, saw us cut the underwood in a matter of two task days. Kitchen Copse is slightly different from many woods we have coppiced, in that it is not the usual Hazel understorey with Oak standards. For those of you new to coppicing, the underwood or understorey is the smaller bushy vegetation that is usually multi-stemmed showing it is coppiced, ie cut on cycle of say every 5 -15 years depending on the use the wood is being put to. Standards, or maidens, are the larger single stemmed trees that are not coppiced and traditionally left to meet bigger timber needs. Hence, the terms coppice (everything cut) and coppice with standards. The area that is cut each year is called a coup, or in the South East of England a cant. You didn’t know there was a completely different vocabulary of terms to woodland management - woodsmanship, not forestry is what we practice. Forestry in its modern definition is plant a tree, let it grow, cut it down and plant another one, although traditionally a forest was an area of land set aside for hunting and not necessarily wooded, the New Forest or Ashdown Forest being relic examples. Anyrate, back to Kitchen Copse! Ecologically, we classify woodlands by what we call stand types, for example a stand of oak woodland is very different from that of pine woodland, and it is common to have differing stand types within one woodland, as we do indeed have at Kitchen Copse. There are a set of national stand types that are called NVCs or National Vegetation Classifications, and Kitchen Copse is essentially an Ash-Maple woodland stand type (ie the dominant species but with alot of other species like hazel in it). Ah, that explains all the ash trees you cry, given the wood has probably not been coppiced since the Second World War. What we are looking to do, is restore the coppice cycle which will be ash dominated but with alot of hazel, under oak standards. There is some debate over whether the oaks were planted or are natural regeneration. So what we will be doing in the current programme is finish thinning/coppicing the Ash, with lots of opportunities to learn the use of ropes and knots (timber hitch, running bowline - oh no, not more terms!!!) ; then we’ll be having a woodcraft day looking at how traditionally the wood was used/turned into useful objects, deer fencing the coup/cant to ensure that what we’ve cut regenerates well and is not eaten, and finally in April looking at the copse at ‘Bluebell time’ all it’s spring glory.
Of course Kitchen Copse was the venue for our traditional Christmas spit roast in the woods. Thanks to Alison & Emma for preparing the lamb & pork, and everyone that brought mince pies and other goodies washed down with mulled grape juice. The moral of the story, as a number of us found out, is don’t try and hump logs afterwards!! Whilst on the subject of food, a big thank you to those (particularly Brian) who have brought homemade goodies and other things out on task through the year -lots more in 2012 please!!
The Copse was also the venue for the Group’s chainsaw operators reassessment. Every three years, they are reassessed and congratulations go to Ian, Keith & Simon who all passed with the other three operators on the day. In true RACV tradition, Ian & Simon were both complemented as ‘standout’ compared with the rest, although both of them will modestly say they lashed up on the day, but then they were pushing themselves (which is what tutored reassement is all about) and why the assessor said what he did, because they both got themselves out of the problems they encountered. Perhaps you only need to know that the two of them put themselves inside the deer fencing to increase their precision/difficulty, to understand the assessor’s view. For those who would like to become chainsaw operators, we now have some course options/gameplans, so if you haven’t yet let Simon know you’re interested please do so!
Back on the Marsh, we cracked on managing the willows along the Redhill Brook. A good example of where it is important to ignore national handbooks in favour of local/traditional practise. You will find handbooks will wax lyrical about the value of pollarding willow trees (that is the cutting of then higher up so the regenerating stems are out of reach of browsing stock), but we have no such tradition in East Surrey, therefore is it the correct thing to do, or introducing an alien practise ?!! Older willows show signs that they were coppiced on the Marsh, so that is what we’re doing. At last Linden Homes have completed the tree & shrub planting along the old footpath line below their mound, and we await them completing the replacement of the old bridge at the western end of the Moors. The number of Teal & Lapwing using the Moors this autumn, has been the highest ever, which says alot about the right sort of management, whilst we can reveal the identity of the ram put in with our beloved Romney Marsh ewes. There was a great debate about him on task, a mean looking ugly bugger to put it bluntly, with a number of vols stating if he’s a Romney them I’m ......! Yup, he’s not a Romney, apparently the current vogue is to introduce some Charollais blood into the stock (can we get the jokes like he didn’t look like cattle, a bull in sheep’s clothing, etc out the way please!) so the girls had a not so handsome Gallic paramour! What Wellington our pedigree Sussex cattle bull had to say about it........
On Petridgewood Common, we continued our clearance of the encroaching scrub on this species rich grassland site. The Council assures us that they will be treating the regeneration of what we’ve cut and the cricket club is to stop dumping their cuttings in enriching piles on the native sward areas we’ve cleared. We’ll be back to finish off the area in January. Perhaps, like Kitchen Copse, we could do with a summer visit to look at the grassland species in flower? Thanks to Brian, who on a number of occasions as here, has gone in advance of the main task and got the fire going, to get us off to a flying start, and a thank you to everyone who has responded to the last round up’s call for a prompt 10am start.
You’ve probably heard that everything has to be ‘landscape scale’ these days. That nature conservation will be more successful if we can create big swathes, linking up individual sites. In Wildlife Trust terms these are referred to as ‘Living Landscapes’, or in RSPB parlance ‘Futurescapes’. Across the whole of the country such areas are being identified and in the South East they are called BOA’s (Biodiversity Opportunity Areas). Petridgewood Common sits in such a BOA running north linking into Felland Copse, New Pond Farm, Earslwood & Redhill Commons. The Marsh and Kitchen Copse are in turn also located in a separate BOA running from Redhill to Godstone. So we are playing a major role in delivery of this approach.
Indeed our work on Redhill Common reflects the importance of ‘holding our ground’ on a site. Not only is the Common now covered by the widening & renaming of the Earslwood Common Management Group and will be subject to a wider management plan from 2013, but is now the northern end of this BOA reaching down to Petridgewood Common. Indeed, we have again suggested it as a candidate LNR (Local Nature Reserve) to the Council in their review, logically extending the Earslwood LNR to reinforce the point.
On Redhill Common, we completed the path widening started last winter, removing sycamore and laurel (Alan, who virtually lives on the Common went on an excellent vendetta regarding the latter!!), making the path vehicle accessible and creating scalloped/glade edges for micro habitat. Perhaps one of the nicest comments we had was a lady walking her dog who thanked us, saying she no longer felt threatening walking along the path now and didn’t have to turn her mobile phone on. Then with the Grammar School, we started clearance around the northern side of the pond, which we’ll continue this quarter. The longer term plan is to create a clear area around the pond so that it can be accessed to properly restore it. For most of the Grammar school pupil’s this was their third and final Bronze DoE task and we will have a new intake in the spring. Equally, a number of them are interested in doing their silver and gold with us, following in the find tradition of Daniel (Gold), Eleanor & Alessia (Silver), and we look forward to welcoming them into the Group proper.
Sadly, Reigate Heath does still not appear in the task programme. There we were all ready to go in September, and the Council would address our last concern, the golf club lease area anomalies. Summer came & went with no response from the Council, then in mid autumn, they suddenly responded saying was that there was not a problem and the issue was closed. Sadly, the signage and breach of planning at Heathfield Nurseries also resurfaced and not does not appear to being addressed as far as we are aware, and Simon found a chap excavating around the football pitch, who turned out to be a footballer, from a different club to that leased to play there, and was totally unaware that the site was protected. Neither the Council nor Nature England were aware of this, but apparently it’s all ok! It all points to the need for the Council to get their house in order, and we have simply indicated our willingness to return, when matters are put right. The fact that the chair of the Heath Steering Group is also the Council portfolio holder for enforcement & compliance says it all.
But it’s not been all work! Paul Collins, who also happens to be a Trustee of the Wildlife Trust (and a real ale drinker!), found the Surrey Oaks PH near Newdigate has a traditional skittle alley, and suggested we challenge the Trust’s East Area Ranger’s Team to a match. Well, this is where one is reminded of that fact that history is always written by the victor! Did we win, did they win, does it matter?! The important thing was we had a great turn out, a cracking good time, really bad banter & heckling, and good food & beer. And we’re doing it all again on 31 January, so please book with Simon so the pub knows numbers. (For the record, it was an honourable draw!).
Congratulations to Steve Bolton, our SWT Ranger, on the birth of a son in October, and we say a sad bye bye and good luck to Eleanor Yoxall, Reigate & Banstead Borough Council Ranger who gone to pastures new with the National Trust on Limpsfield Common. Looking ahead to 2012, this quarter is of course Toad Crossing time, and each year we warden the stretch of Bletchingley road by Spynes Mere at dusk to help the toads across the road. If you would like to join our band of wardens please let Simon know.
We’re also on the lookout for a new location to store our tools, so if anyone has good ideas please let us know. Keep those First Aid Course opportunities coming, if work offers you it, take it; and we’d like to get more photos of task events, so any budding photographers step forward!
Now is the time for your 2012 membership renewal, if nothing else it pays for your chocolate biscuits for the year as well as actually feeling part of the Group. Follow the link