Despite a frosty start on Saturday 6th of Dec, we had a really productive day clearing invasive rhododendron and laurel from Kingston Hill.
 |
| Start of the day |
The main work area that day was a dense stand of Laurel located next to Car Park A, here our aim was to remove all of the laurel and create a clearing which will be utilised in 2015 for another biodiversity project.
 |
| and a cutting we shall go |
While the volunteers concentrated on this area, our contractors (The Green Team) continued working on the area behind Coombe Hurst House where they re-treated any rhodo re-growth from previous rhodo bashes, with plugs of chemical herbicides.
These herbicide plugs are applied to a drilled hole on the remaining stumps to stop the plant from growing back. The good thing about plugged herbicides compared to spraying herbicides is that native plants growing right next to the invasive vegetation is not accidentally affected through mis-spraying or having the chemicals leach into the soil.
 |
| Sugar break |
 |
| Ready to get going again after lunch |
We had a few breaks during the day to warm up and keep up our energy levels. Before our next big push to...
 |
| Cut |
 |
| and clear |
 |
| cut |
 |
| cut (Amy managed to grab a shot of me working too) |
 |
| cut and... |
 |
| ... you guessed it -clear! |
…make sure we cut and cleared as many of the main stems as possible as well as stock piling cuttings for the Green Team to chip and remove the following day. We also made sure that the site was left all nice and tidy - even if we did have to improvise our brooms.
 |
| Necessity is a great push for invention (or reinvention) |
The teams did a fantastic job, we cleared enough to allow us to get rid of some of the rubbish that had accumulated under the laurel as we walked the site in a forensic style line of litter pickers – through we left some of the larger bits of rubbish until the next event.
Speaking of forensics, we found the following skull when we lifted up an old degraded crisp packet. Can you help identify what animals it may belong to?
 |
| Canines point to a carni/omnivore - can you help us id this down to species? |
Post your comments and reasons below :)
No comments:
Post a Comment