01-09-2015: a week of summer cleans and clearances

A little rain isn’t enough to put this group off!

Last Wednesday saw Nursing Students on Alternative Practice Week, come out to help clear brambles off of the nature trail at Kingston Hill.

Clearance normally takes place at the end of august to avoid the bird nesting season. The work is vital to keep the nature trail usable for local groups. Helping to get children out and about in the natural environment and experience all of the associated benefits from being closer to nature.  

A section of the track before the team went through

The team were brilliant, worked really hard and managed to go over the whole of the nature trail with a rough cut – amazing when you consider the fact that:

1. Many of them had thought they were only going on a nature walk in the woods and hadn’t been prepared for clearing blackberries
2. And it was raining heavily throughout the day, making conditions more than a little tricky

After some clearance 

You could see where the team had been as they left a recognisable track in their wake. We had some extra help for part of the day when one of the regular KUBAG volunteers came out before a meeting on site. 

Julia pops over to lend a helping hand

Keeping up spirits despite the rain!

A well-deserved break for a drink and biscuit

The final clearance at the end of the trail

The sun finally decided to show itself …. after we’d finished for the day and put away the tools!!

Speaking of clearing...

Some of you may have noticed the old sofa that someone had dumped in the Hogsmill near Middle Mill. 

Volunteers monitoring the eels had been able to pull out some of the sofa cushions from the river, but the largest part of the sofa was inaccessible as it had been flushed down stream into our new embankment!

Bedding in 

Here the plants had started to grow through it, and getting it out was a much more logistically tricky job. 

Last Friday I went in to the river with a small team from FADA and we managed to hoick the sofa out.

Theo and Guillermo taking a moment to put their feet up :)

It’s now sitting on the embankment waiting for the council to collect it for safe disposal. 

Our upcoming events in September and October are a little easier; as we work to get the community gardens up and ready at the start of the new term as well as more Riverfly Monitoring Initiative (RMI) training at Knights Park mid-October. 

It would be great to see you there so if you can make it, don’t forget to sign up by emailing biodiversity@kingston.ac.uk

Bye for now.