Work on the Moor

Today we had 18 volunteers working hard on the reserve. We concentrated on raking up the vegetation that had been cut a few weeks ago on the moor.

Removing the cuttings helps reduce the availability of nutrients in the soil. This stops nutrient loving species such as nettles taking over and gives wildflowers that thrive in nutrient poor soils a chance to grow.

This is an extension of the work that has been carried out over the previous few years on the middle moor where we now have over 50 recorded species of wildflower. We hope that these will spread to the two areas either side that we raked today.

Ken and Eddie also strimmed back some of the rushes that were starting to grow on the middle moor, this will knock them back and give the wildflowers a better chance of thriving.

The children from the Dales School came out and pitched in; raking and bagging up a lot of the cuttings whilst the volunteers took a well-deserved lunch break.

We would like to thank everyone who worked really hard today, you did a fantastic job and we can’t wait to see how the area develops in the coming growing season.

After finishing work today a few of the volunteers took a walk round the reserve and heard the first Willow Warbler of the year!