Drains and Chippings

It finally feels like we are coming to an end for this coppice block. With nearly all the willow coppiced or pollarded it was now the job of dragging all the branches to the chipper and then carting the chippings away for use at a later date, plus general tidying up for the coming season.

After the enormous effort by our volunteers yesterday we continued with the dragging of the brash to the chipper via a network of paths by the workshop.

The very mobile, tracked chipping machine enabled us to change location on a regular basis to reduce the distances we had to drag brash.

Peter kindly came in to assist us, despite having also been in helping yesterday! We were very pleased to have him spread the load for us.

Willie, our other contractor, was busy doing various drainage jobs along the reserve main track.

We had noticed certain areas that were wanting over the last year; water not draining where it should or water pooling or washing away the track gravel.

This is an ongoing site maintenance issue, where constant vigilance is needed to keep the reserve at above standard for appearance, but mainly for the flora and fauna to benefit.

Thank you to the team of contractors; Willie, Simon and Sean for their professional approach to all the jobs they have carried out for us, and a special thank you to Peter for coming in - the extra helped was needed!