Gorse bashing on the wetland

It may have taken longer than a morning, but removing (almost) all of the gorse from the wetland within 24 hours is pretty good going!

The team put in a really good shift today; following the brushcutter around, raking and gathering the gorse cuttings, all the while trying their best not to fall into the pools.

Stumbling back and forth through the pools made me think of marshes described by Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings; thankfully however there was little evidence of 'Cold clammy winter' today with the weather being just right for such strenuous activities.  

My only regret has been that I forgot to take a picture of the wetland before we started working this morning as the difference made in one day would have been a nice addition to this blog post! 

Opening up the wetland by removing the gorse and managing the sward in the run up to Spring will hopefully encourage breeding wading birds to return to the Reserve as we are now on track for repair works to be carried out in the coming weeks.